PHOTOSGuess Co-Founder Paul Marciano Stepping Aside After Kate Upton Sexual Misconduct Allegations
Feb. 20 2018, Updated 4:00 p.m. ET
Guess co-founder Paul Marciano has announced he is relinquishing his “day to day responsibilities” at Guess as the company investigates the sexual harassment allegations Kate Upton laid against him in a bombshell interview with Time earlier this month. Although Paul denies Kate’s claims, Guess has formed a committee to investigate the accusations, and in the meantime, Paul is taking a backseat at the company.
“The Board of Directors and Mr. Marciano have agreed that Mr. Marciano will relinquish his day to day responsibilities at the Company, on an unpaid basis, pending the completion of the investigation,” Guess said in a statement Tuesday morning, The Blast reported.
Earlier this month, Kate detailed her interactions with Paul over the course of her career as a model for Guess. Kate claimed that the first time she met Paul when she was just 18, he “forcibly grabbed her breasts.” “I’m making sure they’re real,” he allegedly said after she pushed him away.
During their first meeting, Kate claimed Paul grabbed her by “the back of my head so that I could not move and started kissing my 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 explained.
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Kate also repeatedly declined Paul’s requests for dates and one-on-one meetings in hotel rooms, and when she ignored him, he would sometimes retaliate by firing her from shoots. Kate even enlisted the help of photographer Yu Tsai to always be with her when Paul requested a meeting.
Kate left Guess in 2011 to work for Sports Illustrated. In the wake of her success from the SI cover, Kate was offered a $400,000 Guess campaign. When Paul told her she wouldn’t be allowed to bring her boyfriend to set, she quit the shoot a week before it was scheduled.
Paul called Kate’s allegations “absolutely false” and “preposterous.” “I have never been alone with Kate Upton. I have never touched her inappropriately. Nor would I ever refer to a Guess model in such a derogatory manner,” he told Time.
Are you surprised Paul has stepped down in the wake of Kate’s allegations? Sound off in the comments below.
