A Minnesota television meteorologist has filed a lawsuit against her former employer, alleging she was subject to unwanted complaints about her appearance from her boss and a fellow weatherman.

In a complaint filed this week in state court, Renee Fox — who uses the name Wren Clair on television — said she faced “sex-based disparate treatment and sexual harassment” during her time at KSTP (Channel 5, ABC) from the time she was hired in 2018 until her firing earlier this year.

Fox complains her former boss, KSTP News Director Kirk Varner, “regularly made offensive sex-based comments about her body and appearance.” In one conversation, Fox alleged that Varner “voiced his preference for tighter-fitting outfits” and “complained when she wore pants instead of a dress.”

Fox claims Varner was “more harshly critical” of her than male peers, assigned her less favorable hours and assignments, and provided less and lower quality promotional support. She alleges that male colleagues engaged in “blatant misconduct” and had “glaring performance deficiencies” that Varner ignored or tolerated.

Fox was fired from the station in February. In a legal filing this week, an attorney for KSTP’s parent company Hubbard Broadcasting said Varner’s conversations with Fox were “standard for on-air talent.”

Hubbard argues that Fox did not challenge an appearance clause in her talent contract when she accepted the on-air role in 2018, and that the term was in force through the duration of her time with the station.

Appearance clauses are common in contracts involving on-air local news talent, and numerous courts have held that the terms are generally legal if they relate to specific aspects, such as grooming and dressing habits, as long as they do not discriminate against protected elements like age, race or gender.

In this case, Hubbard did not dispute Varner reprimanded Fox about her appearance, but said they were general conversations based on her appearance clause. In one discussion, Varner reminded Fox that she shouldn’t wear sweatpants on air; in another, he reminded Fox that she should have given the station a heads-up before changing her hair from blonde to brunette.

Fox’s attorney, Paul Schinner, said the conversations veered off-course from a normal discussion between a TV station boss and on-air talent over their appearance, and that Varner held Fox to certain standards that were not enforced on her male colleagues.

“We feel that a fact that a woman is on television is not an excuse to subject her to offensive sexual comments and sexist double-standards,” Schinner said.

Fox is not suing Varner; instead, her legal efforts are concentrated on KSTP and Hubbard, which are named as defendants. Varner retired from the television industry in late February, around the time Fox was fired. He has since launched his own website, TVND.com, where he publishes a regular column, which is occasionally syndicated on The Desk. On Thursday, Varner said he could not comment on the lawsuit.

The suit also references comments allegedly made by former KSTP chief meteorologist Dave Dahl prior to his 2020 retirement. According to Fox, Dahl told her on multiple occasions how “great” and “slim” she looked. She claims she reported and opposed those comments to Varner.

Hubbard denied that occurred, saying instead that Varner told Fox she “could not be trusted with severe weather coverage” and ended the discussion after she began “deflecting and blaming others for her poor performance.”

Fox served as KSTP’s prime-time weekday evening meteorologist for “5 Eyewitness News” after Dahl’s retirement. Her complaint alleges that the working environment and management decisions ultimately led to her demotion, reduced assignments, and eventual termination, all in retaliation for reporting alleged harassment.

Fox now works as an on-air meteorologist for cross-town rival KARE (Channel 11, NBC), which is owned by TEGNA.