'I'm not going to let him intimidate me anymore,' the 25-year-old model/actress says as she accuses the Guess co-founder of groping her when she was 18 and firing her because she had 'gotten fat.'
- Feb 8, 2018
AceShowbiz - After accusing Guess co-founder Paul Marciano of sexual misconduct last month in her social media posts, Kate Upton has now detailed her accusations in a new interview with TIME. In the piece published on Wednesday, February 7, the 25-year-old model/actress claimed the 65-year-old fashion mogul once "forcibly grabbed my breasts" during a long campaign of harassment.
Upton shared that after the first day of shooting her Guess Lingerie campaign in July 2010, Marciano "said he wanted to meet with me. As soon as I walked in with photographer Yu Tsai, Paul came straight up to me, forcibly grabbed my breasts and started feeling them - playing with them actually. After I pushed him away, he said, 'I'm making sure they're real.' "
"Despite doing everything I could physically do to avoid his touch throughout the meeting, he continued to touch me in a very dominating and aggressive way, grabbing my thighs, my arms to pull me closer, my shoulders to pull me closer, my neck, my breasts, and smelling me," she continued.
Upton claimed Marciano told the photographer to leave, but "The Layover" actress was "able to send a quick text asking him to stay. He did, but that didn't stop Paul's constant grabbing." She continued to detail what Marciano did to her at the time, "At one point he forcibly grabbed the back of my head so that I could not move and started kissing my face and my neck. I remember not wanting to say 'Get off of me' because I didn't want to open my mouth to say anything because I didn't want him to be able to put his tongue in my mouth." She said she "had two options: do everything I could to wiggle away and avoid his pursuit, or punch the CEO of Guess. So I decided to just wiggle away."
In his statement responding to Upton's accusations that was released earlier this week, Marciano described the allegations as "false" and "malicious." "I have never been alone with Kate Upton," he said. "I have never touched her inappropriately. Nor would I ever refer to a Guess model in such a derogatory manner."
"I fully support the #metoo movement. At the same time, I will not allow others to defame me and tarnish my reputation," he continued. "I have pledged to Guess and its Board of Directors my full support and cooperation with a fair and impartial investigation."
Photographer Yu Tsai confirmed to TIME that he witnessed the alleged harassment. Upton went on claiming that, when she had her next Guess shoot approximately a month later, Marciano asked to walk her back to her hotel room, but she "politely" declined. "The only thing I was thinking is if he touches me like that in public, I can't imagine what he'd try to do in private," she said.
She claimed Marciano called repeatedly asking to visit her at the hotel and said that he was already down in the lobby. She said the following day she was told she had been fired from the shoot. "Someone had called my agency to say I had gotten fat and would not be needed on set," she said. "I was devastated, especially because at this point no one from Guess had even seen me."
Upton, who worked on several Guess campaigns after the initial encounter, went on to say that Yu Tsai essentially became her protector and ensured she was never alone with Marciano. But the photographer was eventually fired as well in what she described as retaliation for helping her.
