
Erin Andrews.
Cindy Ord/Getty Images For the fanaticsErin Andrews I emotionally recalled a difficult moment from an incident with a stalker more than a decade ago.
“People thought it was a scandal, and I’m from high school,” Andrews, 45, said. Hoda Kotb In an excerpt from Kotb’s “Making Space” podcast, which will be released on Wednesday, November 22.
In 2008, Michael David Barrett Andrews was secretly photographed through a peephole while naked in hotel rooms in Nashville and Columbus, Ohio. He later posted the videos online in 2009.
“I don’t do those things,” Andrews explained. “I knew the second I got a phone call from my friend Sports Illustrated He said, “There’s this video.” I said: No, there is not. I do not do that. I’m a bachelor. I don’t have that going on in my life. He says, “Erin, this is you.”
After watching the video, Andrews said she called her parents.
“My dad said he thought I was in a car accident because I was just screaming,” Andrews recalls. “And I feel so bad. My parents were unbelievable. Oh my God, I was in my 30s when it happened, and I resorted to acting like a 15-year-old, because in terms of not wanting to deal, my parents were really ahead of the curve.”
In 2009, Barrett pleaded guilty during a civil trial to videotaping him Dancing with the stars com. cohost. After serving 30 months in prison for interstate stalking, Barrett was released in 2012.
Andrews won a $55 million civil suit in March 2016 against Barrett, the Nashville hotel owner and operator, West End Hotel Partners and Windsor Capital Group. She broke down while giving evidence in court as she described the emotional damage she suffered from the incident.
“He’s always there. He’s always on my back,” she said at the time. “I wanted to be the girl next door who loved sports, and now I’m the girl in the hotel scandal… It’s going to be on the Internet until I die.”
Andrews also claimed that ESPN forced her to recall the incident in an interview before she could return to work.
“Because there was no arrest, and because we didn’t know where this happened, my bosses at ESPN told me, before you go back on the air to play college football, we need you to do an interview.” This was the only way I would be allowed back.
An ESPN spokesperson said Us Weekly In response to her claims: “Developments in the case have been interpreted by some to mean that ESPN was not supportive of Erin in the wake of her ordeal. Nothing could be further from the truth. We were and continue to be supportive of Erin.