According to a recent report by The Wall Street Journal, Tucker Carlson, the former host of Fox News, was dismissed from his position due to comments he made in private about his colleagues and bosses. The report revealed that Carlson’s private text messages, which were made public as part of Dominion Voting Systems’ defamation lawsuit against Fox News, showed him criticizing Fox leadership and expressing concern about reporters fact-checking former President Trump’s false claims about voter fraud, which he believed could anger the network’s massive audience.

The Journal, which is also owned by Rupert Murdoch, reported that Carlson’s explicit text messages, some of which were redacted in the Dominion court documents, were known internally to senior Fox management and played a role in his ouster. The report also suggested that in one of the redacted messages, Carlson referred to a senior female Fox News executive using the c-word, which was deeply offensive.

The Journal reported that when Fox’s lawyers were fighting the Dominion suit, they told Carlson they had successfully convinced a judge to keep those messages redacted, but he was not impressed and told colleagues he wanted the world to know what he thought of Fox management. In other text messages that were not redacted, Carlson was seen badmouthing former President Trump and his allies. The report suggested that in one of those messages, Carlson told colleagues his remarks about Trump were “said during a momentary spasm of anger, while his dislike of this executive was deep and enduring.”

Last month, Carlson expressed his outrage during a radio interview that his private communications were made public as part of the Dominion lawsuit. Carlson has not commented publicly on his departure from Fox as of Wednesday morning. Fox agreed last week to pay Dominion $787.5 million to settle the case moments before opening arguments were set to begin before a jury. The network announced Monday it had parted ways with Carlson, a decision which it reported on its air that morning had been made mutually.