Model Holly Hallstrom leftThe Price Is Rightin 1995, after 18 years with the show. She was told that it was due to her weight, but she says now that the actual reason was that she wouldn't defend longtime host Bob Barker.
When her costar Dian Parkinson had an affair with Barker and subsequently sued him for sexual harassment, Hallstrom refused to come to his defense legally, the former model alleged in new E! docuseriesDirty Rotten Scandals.
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"I wanted nothing to do with it," Hallstrom said in the doc, which proposes that the early years of the game show were rife with sexual harassment. "I was the only one that was asked to give a deposition and did not. I didn't want to commit felony perjury, which is exactly what it would have been if I gave a testimony."
She later toldPEOPLE, "I was on his s--- list, and I knew it."
Barker, whodied in 2023, had hosted the daytime TV staple since 1972.
"I refused to testify in court, to commit felony perjury for him," Hallstrom told the outlet. "That was the final straw, but it's against the law to fire an employee for failing to testify on your behalf in a court of law, so they could not fire me for that."
Instead, she alleged, "Barker said I was overweight, and that's why I was off the show."
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Entertainment Weeklyhas reached out to CBS for comment.
Hallstrom recounted in the doc that Barker had told her that she was leaving as part of an "early retirement," which made her think, "I hate that man."
"Basically, he said I was a fat liar and problematic and no one liked working with me, and that was just a bald-faced lie," Hallstrom told PEOPLE. "And that's when I said, 'I'm not taking this. I'm not going quietly.' And because I had not, like Dian, taken the settlement and signed the non-disclosure agreement, I could do that. I could speak out."
When Hallstrom spoke to the tabloid showHard Copy, Barker sued her for defamation. He dropped his lawsuit ahead of a trial, but she filed her own lawsuit for malicious prosecution against him, which they settled.
Hallstrom said the legal action had cost her a lot, and she waited until Barker's death to speak out again.
The docuseries has also coveredAmerica's Next Top ModelandThe Dr. Phil Show.
Dirty Rotten Scandals: The Price Is Rightpremiered Wednesday on E!.
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