Former Price Is Right host Bob Barker is a legend in game show history as well as in the hearts of audiences who grew up watching him. Despite his beloved status, however, there are dark scandals in his past. Two of those scandals resulted in the show’s models taking legal action against Barker.
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Inside Bob Barker’s ‘Price Is Right’ Legal Woes
Several generations grew up with Bob Barker as the host of The Price Is Right, though he retired from the show in 2007 and was replaced by current host Drew Carey. Barker’s time on the show is fondly remembered, with his unusual closing catchphrase to spay and neuter your pets being one of his iconic legacies. That’s not to say that Barker’s time on the show wasn’t without controversies. In fact, Barker was the subject of two lawsuits filed by the models who worked on the show.
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Former Model Dian Parkinson’s Serious Allegations
Dian Parkinson joined The Price Is Right permanently in 1975 after appearing on the popular game show part-time. She worked on the show for 18 years before suing Barker, alleging that he forced her to sleep with him and threatened to have her fired if she refused.
Barker denied the allegations, claiming that the two dated from 1989 to 1991. Parkinson further claimed that she developed a bleeding ulcer as a result of the stress caused by Barker’s alleged sexual demands which kept her from working. She eventually dropped the lawsuit because of the negative effect it had on her health, though she has continued to stand by her allegations.
Holly Hallstrom Names Barker In Suit
Parkinson wasn’t the only member of Barker’s Beauties to sue the show. Holly Hallstrom began working as a model on the show in 1977, back in its early days before ultimately being forced out in 1995. She filed a lawsuit against the show on allegations of wrongful termination.
She claimed that she was fired after medication she was taking caused her to gain weight. Barker, who was also named in the suit alongside producers for the show, denied the allegations and countered with a slander and libel suit.
He insisted that Hallstrom wasn’t fired over her weight, but rather because of budget cutbacks. At the time, he told Entertainment Tonight, via The New York Times, “If the company were going to terminate her for a weight problem, Holly would have been gone years and years ago.”
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He added that her dress size had fluctuated between 8 and 14 over the years, seemingly poking a hole in Hallstrom’s claim that her premenopausal medication was the reason for the weight gain. Hallstrom eventually won the lawsuit and was awarded millions in a settlement. Barker dropped his countersuit just a few days before the trial was due to begin.
With a little over 30 years on the program, it’s not surprising that Bob Barker has been involved in a controversy or two. Hopefully he’s made peace with the women who claimed he wronged them.