Erin Andrews made a serious claim in court on Monday about her former employer.
Andrews, who is in the middle of a $75 million civil lawsuit against a stalker and hotel group, claimed in a testimony that ESPN would not allow her back on air until she gave a sit-down interview about the matter.
From an Entertainment Tonight story:
“Andrews claimed that she didn’t want to give an interview at the time, but went through with it at the urging of her superiors at ESPN.
“Because there wasn’t an arrest, because we didn’t know where this happened, my bosses at ESPN told me, ‘Before you go back on-air for college football, we need you to give us a sit-down interview,'” she said. “That was the only way I was going to be allowed back.”
Andrews says ESPN was pushing her to do her interview on “Good Morning America” because it was another property owned by Disney, but she ultimately chose to appear on Oprah after recalling that Winfrey claimed to be a victim of past sexual abuse.
The video of Andrews naked was posted online in 2009. Andrews continued to work for ESPN until 2012, when she left for FOX.
Her stalker, Michael David Barrett was sentenced to 30 months in prison and was released in 2012.
