A boardroom coup ensued on 18 March 1983, when Peter Jay stepped aside allowing Jonathan Aitken to become chief executive of the station, after mounting pressure from investors who had demanded changes. On the same day Angela Rippon and Anna Ford came out publicly to support Peter Jay, unaware he had already left. A month later both Rippon and Ford were sacked. A few months later, Anna Ford encountered Jonathan Aitken at a party in Chelsea; in a parting shot over the terms of her dismissal, Ford threw her glass of wine in the face of Aitken, saying of her action: "It was the only form of self-defence left to a woman when she has been so monstrously treated". A couple of days later both Rippon and Ford started procedures to sue TV-am, by October, the case was dropped after reaching an out of court settlement.