Naked Attraction star Anna Richardson claims she was blacklisted from the industry and forced to go on benefits after accusing Arnold Schwarzenegger of groping her.
In 2003, while the Terminator star was running for Governor of California, Richardson went public with accusations the actor had groped her breast three years before.
She alleged she was interviewing him on ITV’s Big Screen series about his 2000 film The Sixth Day when he touched her breast.
Richardson was one of a number of women who came forward with claims of sexual misconduct about Schwarzenegger to the Los Angeles Times during his political campaign.
She claimed at the time he had asked her if her breasts were real, and then ‘circled my left nipple with his finger and said “Yes, they are real.”‘
Schwarzenegger’s team denied the allegations, claiming Richardson had cupped her breast and asked him ‘What do you think of these?’
Richardson had gone on to sue Schwarzenegger and his top aides for libel following their denial; it was settled out of court.
The TV star has now spoken about the fallout from her allegations, their denial and the subsequent lawsuit, speaking in a new interview with Fleur East for the YouTube series Shaping Success.
In it, she referred to ‘the incident,’ saying she had to ‘choose my words very carefully.’
‘I sued him and we settled out of court … that moment defined me afterwards.’
She said she was out of work for two years following ‘the incident’ and ended up in debt and on benefits, admitting it was ‘very difficult times but that taught me real resilience and to be unafraid to stand up to what I considered to be an injustice.’
Richardson admitted she felt ‘really frustrated’ when the MeToo movement emerged in 2017, as ‘it’s still going on but I was there 15 years prior.’
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She was eventually able to reenter the TV industry, she said, initially by working behind the scenes as a producer.
Richardson is now best-known as the face of Changing Rooms and Naked Attraction.
The allegations against Schwarzenegger were touched upon in his recent Netflix docuseries.
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He had denied all allegations and accused the media of attacking him and his campaign.
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