Fox News’ parent company spent $20 million on Tuesday to settle a lawsuit brought by former anchor Gretchen Carlson, whose allegations of sexual harassment toppled the network’s powerful chairman, Roger Ailes, and engulfed the company in crisis.

But if the settlement was meant to signal the close of a damaging chapter for the network, it fell short. Fox’s newsroom was hit minutes later by a new shock wave: Greta Van Susteren, one of the channel’s best-known and longest-serving hosts, was leaving, effective immediately.

Network officials insisted that the timing was coincidental. But the settlement, combined with Van Susteren’s abrupt departure, underscored the ongoing tumult inside Fox News, whose once proudly defiant newsroom has been besieged this summer by new allegations of harassment and persistent rumors about turnover in the on-air and executive ranks.

These days, it seems, the end of one Fox drama is only the start of another.

Stars like Megyn Kelly and Bill O’Reilly have contracts that expire next year, with Van Susteren’s exit taken on Tuesday as an unsettling sign of change. And it is unclear whether Fox News, without Ailes at the helm, can maintain its political clout amid a disruptive election season.

The uproar is somewhat puzzling for Rupert Murdoch and his sons, James and Lachlan, who control Fox News’s owner, 21st Century Fox. They say they have taken extraordinary steps to address problems at the network, which is still the highest-ranked cable news network in the country, beginning with their swift removal of Ailes.

Specialists in employment law described the $20 million payout to Carlson — a figure confirmed by a person briefed on the agreement — as among the largest-known settlements for a single-plaintiff sexual harassment suit. (Ailes, who received $40 million from Fox as part of his exit agreement, is not paying any portion of the settlement.)

Fox has also settled with at least two other women who came forward with complaints about Ailes, the person said.

And the company issued a rare public apology to Carlson, “for the fact that Gretchen was not treated with the respect and dignity that she and all of our colleagues deserve.”

But tensions remain among the network rank-and-file. Murdoch kept in place several of Ailes’ most loyal deputies and recently promoted them to leadership roles in the newsroom, troubling employees who had hoped for a clean slate.