Hank Winchester, an Emmy-award-winning news reporter from Detroit and co-host of the “The Morning After” podcast with Kelly Stafford, recently discussed being exonerated in an investigation by law enforcement. The investigation was triggered by allegations that he had made unwelcome sexual advances towards a man during a massage in June.

After stepping back from the podcast once the allegations emerged, Winchester returned to “The Morning After” on Monday. He shared his experience of undergoing polygraph tests and described the process as “emotionally exhausting” and characterized by a “very detailed” investigation.

“An accusation was made against me by an individual, and it’s crucial for the police to investigate such claims,” Winchester explained. His Beverly Hills residence was searched by police who were executing a search warrant related to the case on June 13. “However, investigating the accuser’s background is equally important,” he noted. “This is one of the lessons I’ve gleaned from this ordeal. Local law enforcement’s actions led to a media report by a specific station, which quickly gained widespread attention.”

Winchester — who was placed on administrative leave with Local 4 News, Detroit’s NBC affiliate — did not name the local news report.

Fox2 Detroit, which was among other local news outlets that reported the allegations, said at the time that Winchester studied massage therapy recently. It’s unclear if he was the one being massaged or serving as the masseuse. 

“As a result it led to a very detailed and necessary investigation,” Winchester said. “I say necessary because if it’s going to happen, I want to know that investigators had every opportunity to look at everything they needed to, which they did, and determine that in this case that allegation was unfounded, it was baseless, it was defamatory. And that was the opportunity now for my attorneys to come out… but I’m very thankful for that. And I’m very thankful to be on the other side of this. One-hundred percent clear. No charges. The evidence spoke for itself.

“But I will tell you it was an emotionally exhausting process as my attorneys revealed. I took two polygraph tests and passed them with flying colors and there was no detection of any deception. And I did that voluntarily because it was important for me to make sure the investigators had everything they needed. That’s pretty much all I can say about it… It just essentially comes down to not me saying thank you.”

Winchester is married to Oakland County Circuit Judge Jacob Cunningham, with whom he shares a 7-year-old daughter, Emma.

“This was the worst nine weeks of my entire life,” he said. “And I’ve lost both my parents, I’ve had testicular cancer, I’ve gone through a divorce. I’ve had s–t. Nothing compared to this because every aspect of your life is touched.”

Kelly, who is the wife of Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford, recalled being worried about Winchester during the investigation.

“I do hope you felt how much you’re cared about and loved because you are and it’s because of the person you are Hank,” Kelly said. “…It was honestly hard because for a minute there I felt like I couldn’t get a hold of you… I’m so f–king glad right now. I knew this was going to be the end result but damn did it take awhile to get here but aren’t we glad that it’s finally f–king here. I don’t want to bite my tongue or get in trouble by saying too much. I’ll let you take over.”

Todd Flood and Neil Rockind, attorneys for Winchester said in a press conference on Friday that their client was the victim of allegations that spread internationally after one TV station published a story, according to the Detroit Free Press.

Winchester, who was not present at the press conference, released a statement on his social media.

It’s unclear if Winchester is still on administrative leave with Local 4 News.