ABC and E! Stand by Ryan Seacrest in Face of Details of Sexual Harassment Allegations

Suzie Hardy, Ryan Seacrest’s former stylist for E! News, has accused the ubiquitous television host of multiple instances of sexual harassment and abuse over the seven years that she worked for him. In an exclusive Variety report published Feb. 26, Hardy claimed that Seacrest groped her vagina, rubbed his erect penis against her while clad only in his underwear and slapped her buttock so hard that it left a large welt still visible hours later.

“As proud as I am and as strong a woman as I am, as smart as I am and as much work as I’ve done with therapists, it really affected me,” Hardy told Variety.

The allegations — first made in a Nov. 10 letter from Hardy’s attorney to Seacrest, E! and the cable channel’s corporate parent, NBCUniversal — have the potential to affect far more than Seacrest and the network he used to call home. So far the host’s business partners are standing by him.

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