Kate Upton Details Her Paul Marciano Accusations: Guess Co-Founder ‘Forcibly Grabbed My Breasts’

Marciano calls the accusations “absolutely false” and “preposterous”

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After accusing Guess co-founder Paul Marciano of sexual misconduct last month in posts to her social media accounts, model-actress Kate Upton detailed her accusations in an interview published by Time on Wednesday, saying that Marciano once “forcibly grabbed by breasts” during a long campaign of harassment.

Upton told Time 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.’”

Time said Yu Tsai corroborated Upton’s account, though Marciano called the accusations “absolutely false” and “preposterous.”

Uptonn said Marciano told the photographer to leave the two of them alone, but that she was “able to send a quick text asking him to stay.”

“He did, but that did not stop Paul’s constant grabbing,” Upton told Time. “I was extremely shaken, surprised and scared.”

Upton said that, when she was shooting her next Guess shoot approximately a month later, Marciano “started calling me asking to come up and see how my [hotel] room is. I politely declined several times.”

Eventually, Upton said, she “turned off my phone and locked the door and tried to get some sleep.”

The next day, Upton said, she learned that 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 [that day],” Upton said. “I was devastated, especially because at this point no one from Guess had even seen me.”

“I have never been alone with Kate Upton,” Marciano told Time. “I have never touched her inappropriately. Nor would I ever refer to a Guess model in such a derogatory manner.”

Marciano added, “I fully support the #metoo movement. At the same time, I will not allow others to defame me and tarnish my reputation. I have pledged to Guess and its Board of Directors my full support and cooperation with a fair and impartial investigation.”

Upton initially tweeted her accusations on Jan. 31, writing, “It’s disappointing that such an iconic women’s brand @GUESS is still empowering Paul Marciano as their creative director.”

In a subsequent Instagram post, Upton published an image of the tweet and a caption stating, “He shouldn’t be allowed to use his power in the industry to sexually and emotionally harass women #metoo.”

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