Sheesh, it’s almost like men in positions of power are making a habit out of this behaviour.

Paul Marciano is the creative director and co-founder of Guess? Inc., and in the past he has worked with model Kate Upton, seen above.

Their accounts of what went down during their time working together differ wildly, with Kate alleging that Paul was guilty of gross sexual assault.

It all kicked off with this tweet back on February 1:

She remained silent on the details for a week, but revealed exactly what she was alluding to during an extensive interview with TIME.

Marciano has denied the allegations, calling them “absolutely false” and “preposterous”. He added:

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

“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.”

The only problem for Marciano, you see, is that Upton never claimed the assault happened while she was alone with the co-founder.

The photographer present for the shoot – Yu Tsai – says he witnessed the harassment Upton describes and corroborated details of her allegations.

Via her interview, here are those allegations:

After the first day of shooting the Guess Lingerie campaign [on July 25, 2010], Paul 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.”

Despite doing everything I could physically do to avoid his touch throughout the meeting, he continued to touch me in a very dominating and aggressive way, grabbing my thighs, my arms to pull me closer, my shoulders to pull me closer, my neck, my breasts, and smelling me. He then told Yu Tsai to leave us alone. I was able to send a quick text to Yu Tsai asking him to stay. He did, but that did not stop Paul’s constant grabbing. I was extremely shaken, surprised and scared.

At one point he forcibly grabbed the back of my head so that I could not move and started kissing my face and my neck. I remember not wanting to say “Get off of me” because I didn’t want to open my mouth to say anything because I didn’t want him to be able to put his tongue in my mouth. 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.

Then Paul insisted that he walk me up to my hotel room. I immediately declined. The only thing I was thinking is if he touches me like that in public, I can’t imagine what he’d try to do in private. Thankfully, Yu Tsai stepped in and insisted he’d do it. I was so relieved and felt like I had barely escaped.

Kate worked with Guess again a month later, refusing repeated attempts by Marciano to meet with her. She turned off her phone and locked her hotel room door, before waking up to some bad news:

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

And Paul wasn’t done, either:

…Paul [pictured below] was reaching out to me constantly, always in communication about my next shoot. But I wouldn’t officially be booked until a few days before the actual shoot. It made me feel that if I cut off communication with him, I wouldn’t be booked again. Paul’s texting increased, telling me how excited he was to see me, that he wanted me to change in front of him so he could see my naked body getting into his clothes. He asked if I thought of him when I was posing sexy on set…

Then in what seemed to be retaliation, Yu Tsai was fired from the next shoot, which was Guess Jeans [between Sept. 30 and Oct. 2, 2010]. That’s when I worked with the photographer Ellen von Unwerth. Paul’s behaviors became much more aggressive without Yu Tsai there as a buffer. My denials to Paul had to be much more direct. Then I was told the morning of the shoot I was not needed on set and was fired again.

Her final booking with Guess took place in May 2011, and that’s when Paul’s fragile ego finally gave in:

…I had a final shoot [in May of 2011], and he was outwardly rude and degrading the entire time. He said I was “disgusting” and started telling people how unprofessional I was by spreading rumors [sic] that I was drunk on set and partying every night, which of course I wasn’t. I was then told to leave because Paul had said, “Get that fat pig off my set.”

Blink twice if you’ve heard this one before, ladies.

Another day, another example of why the #MeToo movement is such a necessarily powerful tool.

You can read her full interview with TIME here.

[source:time]