Gary King, a star of Bravo‘s “Below Deck Sailing Yacht,” was accused in a lawsuit Tuesday of sexually assaulting a makeup artist on the show.
The woman, Samantha Suarez, alleges that she and her then-boyfriend, camera operator Grey Duddleston, were both fired for speaking up about King’s alleged misconduct.
The pair sued King, Bravo and NBCUniversal in Los Angeles Superior Court. They are represented by Bryan Freedman and Mark Geragos, who have filed a series of similar suits as part of “Reality Reckoning” over the past 18 months.
Bravo declined to comment on this story, while reps for Banijay did not immediately respond to Variety‘s request for comment.
Suarez alleges she “was held hostage in a hotel room” by King on July 3, 2022. According to the suit, King asked Suarez to sleep with him in his bed after he got drunk while completing interviews for the show. He also allegedly told her that Duddleston didn’t have to know what was happening. The suit states that she she left the room after getting him there safely as she was assigned to do.
Suarez was later tasked with delivering water and snacks to the cast. When she got to King’s room, he allegedly answered the door in his underwear and wouldn’t take the items, prompting her to walk past him to set them down. According to the complaint, he then grabbed her as she tried to leave the room. She was able to get away and open the door, but he overpowered her and shut it once again, the suit states.
Suarez alleges she was “sure she would be raped” until she received a phone call from another crew member which she managed to accept, at which point King let go of her to avoid being heard by someone else, though he followed her as she made her way down the hall. Allegedly, still only dressed in underwear, King grabbed Suarez from behind and asked her what was wrong repeatedly while rubbing her back and “smirking.”
Suarez described the incident to Duddleston, who reported it to a co-executive producer, leading to a meeting the next day between Suarez and multiple producers, according to the suit. Showrunner Courtland Cox allegedly sent Suarez an email later the same day saying that King had admitted to Suarez’s allegations and had been warned that he would be fired if another similar incident occurred.
After Suarez officially reported the incident to production company 51 Minds, she was allegedly required to sign a confidentiality and liability waiver and acknowledge that she would not be receiving therapy or treatment as a result of the incident.
Duddleston later saw King “untie the bikini tops of two female cast members without their consent, make lewd remarks to a female audio technician, and grab the genitals of two male camera operators,” the complaint states. When Duddleston reported that over the crew walkie-talkie system, 51 Minds allegedly responded by opening an investigation into inappropriate walkie-talkie use on Duddleston’s part rather than imposing consequences for King.
Suarez was “effectively abandoned” after the incident with King, the complaint says, not hearing from production for close to two weeks. Allegedly, she was reprimanded by the head of HR at 51 Minds’ parent company, Banijay America, for tainting the investigation by speaking to colleagues about what had happened when they reached out to her to ask about her absence from set.
The suit says that “Below Deck” crew members are normally asked to return to the show in the months after the completion of each season, but that Suarez and Duddleston were not asked back and learned that they had been placed on a “do not hire” list that was “well known among the cast and was typically reserved for crew members who had been kicked off the show for inappropriate behavior.”
The investigation concluded on Sept. 16, 2022, with Banijay’s HR head writing that HR check-ins on 51 Minds’ future productions would increase and that the company would be “expanding the conversations around sexual harassment and respect in the workplace” in addition to offering Suarez $1,000 for therapy.
Rolling Stone reported on Suarez’s allegations in August 2023, after which King was removed from the lineup of speakers at that year’s BravoCon, though he has remained a cast member on the show.
The complaint includes claims of sexual battery, wrongful termination, false imprisonment, retaliation, and negligent hiring.
