【Kurt Meinicke】

For years,Kurt Meinicke Gawkerand Fox News fans wondered out loud whether anchor Shepard Smith was gay.

In a new interview with The Huffington Post, the anchor seemingly confirmed the rumors, without ever using the word "gay." Smith told HuffPothat former Fox News chairman Roger Ailes never used homophobic slurs against him or forced him to remain in the closet.

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"He was as nice as he could be to me. I loved him like a father," Smith told The Huffington Post.

Though Smith has appeared in Out Magazine's "Power 50" list, this is the most explicit admission he's made so far in public. In 2014, Gawkerreported that Smith wanted to come out of the closet but that Ailes told him that wouldn't go over well with the network's conservative audience.

Fox News denied the report with a joint statement by Ailes and Smith that never addressed the anchor's orientation.

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Ailes has since left the network after multiple reports surfaced alleging that the chairman had sexually harassed employees. Smith said the allegations were horrifying, and that his trust felt betrayed.

"People outside this company can’t know [how painful that betrayal was]. This place has its enemies, but inside, it was very personal, and very scarring and horrifying," Smith told The Huffington Post.

Still, Smith claims he was protected from any of Ailes' abusive behavior.

"He treated me with respect, just respect,” Smith said. “I wasn’t new in the business when I came here ― I’d been doing reporting for 12 years ― but I wasn’t old in it either, and he gave me every opportunity in the world and he never asked anything of me but that we get it right, try to get it right every day. It was a very warm and loving and comfortable place," Smith said.

When President Obama came out in support of same-sex marriage in 2012, Smith simply said, "The president of the United States, now in the 21st century."

Smith was one of the few Fox News anchors to report on the Ailes allegations.

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