Upton: I Had 2 Options—Wiggle Away or Punch CEO of Guess

Supermodel details allegations against Paul Marciano in interview with 'Time'
By Jenn Gidman,  Newser Staff
Posted Feb 8, 2018 9:50 AM CST
Kate Upton Details Alleged Sex Misconduct by Guess' Marciano
In this Feb. 26, 2017, file photo, Kate Upton arrives at the Vanity Fair Oscar party in Beverly Hills, Calif.   (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP, File)

Kate Upton didn't offer specifics when she posted a #MeToo tweet about Guess co-founder Paul Marciano last month, but now she's talking in an interview with Time. The supermodel says Marciano's pattern of sexual assault and harassment, which photographer Yu Tsai confirms he witnessed, took place starting when she was 18 and working on the Guess campaign, between 2010 and 2011. Among the incidents she describes is one in which she and Marciano had a meeting (with Tsai present) in which Marciano grabbed her breasts to make "sure they're real" and kissed her face and neck. "I 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," she recalls, saying she didn't want to tell him to get off her because she feared he'd stick his tongue into her open mouth.

She details other times in which Marciano tried to visit her hotel room—she always refused—and sent her sexually charged texts. It was at a final shoot in May 2011 when Upton says Marciano finally booted her, saying, "Get that fat pig off my set." Upton says that after the success of her Sports Illustrated cover, Guess tried to coax her back for a campaign in 2012. She agreed to do it, hoping Marciano would treat her better this time around, but Marciano started texting her again as the shoot neared and so she turned down the job. "Paul used his power to make me feel insecure and powerless, but I'm not going to let him intimidate me anymore," she says. Marciano told Time in a statement that he's never been alone with Upton, "never touched her inappropriately," and her accusations are "preposterous" and "absolutely false." More on her story here. (More Kate Upton stories.)

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