Shepard Smith has been with Fox News since it launched 20 years ago, but it's only now that he is acknowledging he is a gay man at the country's most conservative television channel.

In a new interview with The Huffington Post, Smith denied ousted chairman Roger Ailes prevented him from coming out before.

'That's not true. He was as nice as he could be to me. I loved him like a father,' said the 52-year-old newscaster.

But, he adds, the allegations of sexual harassment have been devastating.

"I trusted him with my career and with... I trusted him and trusts were betrayed,' Smith said of Ailes. "This place has its enemies, but inside, it was very personal, and very scarring and horrifying."

Back in 2014, Gawker reported Shepard wanted to come out publicly but Ailes stopped him. "This came up during contract negotiations," a Fox News insider reportedly said. "Shep wanted to and was ready to come out, and Roger just said 'no.'"

Smith denied the claim, as well as reports that Ailes made homophobic remarks in his presence.

"He treated me with respect, just respect,' said Smith in the HuffPo interview. "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 try to get it right every day."

He added that Fox News "was a very warm and loving and comfortable place."

In 2013, Gawker reported Smith was dating a male Fox News production assistant.

He married college classmate Virginia Donald in 1987 but the two divorced in 1993 with no kids. Since his arrival on the national scene, his sexuality has been treated as something of an open secret by the media: Out named him to its Power 50 in 2011, and he attended the National Lesbian And Gay Journalists Association gala in 2014.

He's challenged the status quo at the channel on several topics, most notably marriage equality and GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump.

In 2012, he asked anti-LGBT politician Rick Santorum, who once compared homosexuality to bestiality, “How long do you think it’ll be until you catch up with the rest of the country and realize everybody’s okay?”

More recently he's questioned Donald Trump's integrity and values, calling him "almost fascist."

He'd still like to interview Trump, though.

"I would like to have some time with him. For me, at least, it would be interesting to go through the things he’s said and the things he’s done and try to get an explanation."

Still, its unlikely Smith will morph into Rachel Maddow or become an LGBT advocate—at least while he's still at Fox News. For however long that is.