Gary King, one of the stars of Bravo‘s reality series Below Deck Sailing Yacht, has been accused of sexual misconduct by a former production team member.
Samantha Suarez, who first joined the reality franchise as part of the makeup department, spoke to Rolling Stone about an alleged incident in which a drunk King forced himself on her and refused to let her leave his hotel room.
The incident she described came in the summer of 2022 during Sailing Yacht‘s fourth season while filming in Sardinia, Italy. In addition to doing hair and makeup, Suarez said she also helped the talent manager with day-to-day tasks, such as ensuring cast members were sequestered in their hotel rooms and bringing them food and water since they couldn’t leave their rooms due to COVID protocols.
One “dark day,” when the camera crew members were recording confessional interviews rather than filming on the boat, Suarez said she accompanied an inebriated King back to his hotel room after he finished filming his interviews for the show.
“There is no limit to alcohol consumption whatsoever, which I think poses a really big problem,” she stated.
Suarez said that King was acting erratic, yelling at his co-stars from his balcony and encouraging them to sneak out of their rooms. She said he then asked her to stay, and she joked with him that she would sit outside his door to prevent him from leaving.
According to Suarez, King then suggested she get in bed with him and repeatedly asked her not to leave, even though he was aware she was in a relationship. After later returning with snacks and water, she said King answered the door in his underwear and again asked her not to leave his room.
“I was like, ‘I have to go — I need to go bring other people water and food,’ and he’s like, ‘No, no, please,’” Suarez shared. “So I stepped into the room to set the case of waters down and again, he’s repeating, ‘Don’t leave,’ and I was like, ‘I have to go, I’m not staying.’”
As she turned toward the door, Suarez claimed King came up behind her, grabbed her, and pressed her against his body. She said he refused to let her go, though she tried kicking and elbowing him to get off her. After freeing herself, she said she went to open the door, and King slammed it shut from behind her.
“At that point, I didn’t know what was going to happen. I was freaking out,” she continued. “It just happened so fast.”
King eventually let her go when Suarez said she received a phone call from the talent manager and answered it.
“I’m freaking out, and he goes, ‘What’s wrong? What’s going on?’ And I’m like, ‘Just leave me alone.’ He tried to come up behind me and put his arm around me,” she said. “He’s in the hallway in his underwear and it’s all weird and f****d up, and so I’m just like, ‘Just go back in your room and don’t come out.’”
Suarez said she immediately told producers about what happened and that she was no longer comfortable around King. In response, producers allegedly removed King from the hotel and told him to sleep on the boat.
“It pretty much sucked from there on out. I was just in a super depressive state,” Suarez stated.
In a statement to People, a Bravo spokesperson said, “Bravo is committed to maintaining a safe and respectful workplace for cast and crew on our reality shows. We require our third-party production companies to have appropriate workplace policies and trainings in place and a clear process on how to report concerns. The concerns Ms. Suarez raised in July 2022 were investigated at that time and action was taken based on the findings.”
The Rolling Stone article also detailed three other crew members who claimed King acted inappropriately toward women on set, with one alleging that King grabbed a female cast member’s bottom and continued to touch her inappropriately even when she told him no. He also allegedly grabbed the genitals of a production crew member and a male camera operator.
King has yet to comment publicly on the allegations.
Below Deck Sailing Yacht, Season 4, Mondays, 8/7c, Bravo
:quality(85):upscale()/2023/05/11/976/n/1922564/782262e2645d6b967847b4.74342194_.png)
