Ryan Seacrest’s former stylist has broken her silence revealing her allegations of sexual harassment which she claims turned her job with Seacrest into an ordeal.
‘As proud as I am and as strong as a woman as I am, as smart as I am and as much work as I’ve done with therapists, it really affected me,’ Suzie Hardy has said, as the details of the alleged harassment have been published.
The November letter was sent from Hardy’s attorney addressed to cable channel E!, its corporate parent NBCUniveral, and Seacrest and claims that Hardy dealt with ‘years of unwanted sexual aggression — grinding his erect penis against her while clad only in his underwear, groping her vagina, and at one point slapping her buttock so hard that it left a large welt still visible hours later’.
The letter also asked Seacrest and E! to ‘come up with a plan to address the treatment of all women at the networks and to take responsibility for the wrongful treatment’ of Hardy, and threatened ‘more formal action’ if the request were ignored.
In response, Seacrest went public with the ‘reckless allegations’ and although he apologised for making Hardy feel ‘anything but respected’ he disputed all of her claims.
Hardy claims she continued to work with Seacrest despite the harassment in order to provide for her young daughter; she was interviewed three times by an independent investigator hired by E! to look into the matter and says that she believes there was always a bias towards protecting Seacrest.
‘I felt like by the third interview, it was obvious the investigator was whitewashing it for Seacrest’s side,’ she told Variety.
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She also says that the investigators ‘never contacted four witnesses she had referred him to who could corroborate elements of her story’.
Seacrest’s attorney, Andrew Baum, told Variety that they were told at the end of January that the network’s ‘independent third-party investigation had concluded that there was insufficient evidence to support her claims, effectively, clearing my client’s name’.
He added: ‘It’s telling that after my client refused to pay her money, and the E! investigation resulted as it did, that she is now coming forward to share her debunked story to the press.’
Hardy’s attorney however claimed that neither he nor Hardy at any point asked for money.
But an E! spokesperson has defended the process, describing it as ‘comprehensive and thorough’.
The spokesperson continued: ‘Over the course of a two month process, our outside counsel interviewed more than two dozen people regarding the allegations, including multiple separate meetings with the claimant.
‘The investigator is an attorney with nearly 20 years experience and is highly regarded professionally. Any claims that question the legitimacy of this investigation are completely baseless.’
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METRO
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