Producers of Bravo’s Below Deck Sailing Yacht are being called out by makeup artist Samantha Suarez for covering up cast member Gary King’s sexual misconduct during season four. Season four of Below Deck Sailing Yacht filming in Sardinia, Italy during the summer of 2022.

Suarez, who in addition to doing hair and makeup for the Below Deck cast also assisted the talent manager with various tasks, tells Rolling Stone that King tried to force himself on her during production of season four.

The 27-year-old says that during one “dark day” in July, she accompanied an inebriated King back to his hotel room after filming his confessional interviews. Suarez says that producers piled King with a good amount of alcohol. Side note: “Dark days” are days when no one in the cast or production worked on the yacht and stay in hotels.

“There is no limit to alcohol consumption whatsoever, which I think poses a really big problem,” Suarez claims.

Suarez says that King was acting erratically as she assisted him back to his hotel room; including yelling on his balcony and trying to sneak out of his hotel room to meet up with other cast members. This was a big no-no at the time due to COVID-19 protocols. Suarez says she tried her best to keep King inside his room but eventually told him she had to leave which didn’t go over well with the Below Deck star, who begged her stay. King repeatedly suggested Suarez get into his bed and begged her not to leave his hotel room. Eventually, Suarez left after promising to return later on with water and snacks for King. When she did return with a case of water, King answered the door in his underwear and continued to beg her to stay in his hotel room.

“I was like, ‘I have to go — I need to go bring other people water and food,’ and he’s like, ‘No, no, please,’” Suarez recalls “So I stepped into the room to set the case of waters down and again, he’s repeating, ‘Don’t leave,’ and I was like, ‘I have to go, I’m not staying.’”

When Suarez turned to leave the hotel room, King grabbed her from behind and pressed his body against her; refusing to let go. After kicking and elbowing King, Suarez managed to escape his grasp but when she went to open the hotel room door King slammed the door shut shut from behind her.

“At that point, I didn’t know what was going to happen. I was freaking out,” Suarez says. “It just happened so fast.”

Thankfully, Suarez received a call from the talent manager and King let her take the call in the hallway.

“I’m freaking out, and he goes, ‘What’s wrong? What’s going on?’ And I’m like, ‘Just leave me alone.’ He tried to come up behind me and put his arm around me. He’s in the hallway in his underwear and it’s all weird and fucked up, and so I’m just like, ‘Just go back in your room and don’t come out.’”

Suarez immediately told producers about the incident and later talked with numerous executive producers from Below Deck about the incident. They promised that King would be fired from the show if any other incidents occurred. They also insured that King would be talked to and would sleep on the yacht, instead of the hotel, during “dark days” moving forward.

“It pretty much sucked from there on out,” Suarez says, noting that she debated going home and not filming the rest of the season. “I was just in a super depressive state.”

The makeup artist says that she was instructed not to discuss the incident with King because “it was becoming water cooler talk” on set.

Two other crew members, who worked in production with Suarez during season four of Below Deck, said they heard about the incident between Suarez and King. They also say they have “constantly” witnessed King make other women on set uncomfortable.

“He’s next-level scary with women,” they say.

Another crew member, who requested to remain anonymous as well, said they witnessed King grab a female cast member’s butt and touch her inappropriately despite being told to stop multiple times.They also witnessed King grab a camera operator’s genitals.

“The girl was literally saying, ‘No, stop, don’t,’” the crew member says. “I’m explaining this over my walkie and no one’s acknowledging it.

“It was insane. There were multiple incidents of sexual harassment in front of multiple producers after this person had been given verbal warnings multiple times,” they add.

Suarez and other crew members say they were not asked to return to Below Deck after being vocal about King’s alleged harassment.

The incidents were all caught on film but didn’t air on TV. “I had to promote and make this guy who just assaulted someone look awesome,” the crew member says.“That was my job, to make this person look cool, capable, and exciting.” 

“You’re an executive producer on the show and you’re not even worried that your cast member put his hands on me and is being a creep currently while being on TV?” Suarez says. “Somebody shouldn’t be able to keep a platform for being a gross creep.”

“Nobody knew how to handle [my situation] and I think that’s why it was handled so poorly, because nobody knew what to do or what the right thing to do was. I was told there weren’t any protocols and the only thing was to reach out to HR but even then, nothing was really happening,” Suarez says. “Why can’t you just get on TV and be like, ‘Gary had to be removed from the show for his misconduct?’ If anything, that would make me respect the producers and the show and everything a lot more if they were just honest instead of trying to sweep things under the rug, which is what feels like happened.”

“For a show like this where there is alcohol and sex involved, I think there should be an intimacy coordinator-type position on these shows or something like that,” one crew member adds. “There should be some accountability and some standardization practice where it’s not just up to some dude [in the control room] who has been producing television for 20 years.”

In a statement, a spokesperson for Bravo told Rolling Stone: “Bravo is committed to maintaining a safe and respectful workplace for cast and crew on our reality shows. We require our third-party production companies to have appropriate workplace policies and trainings in place and a clear process on how to report concerns.  The concerns Ms. Suarez raised in July 2022 were investigated at that time and action was taken based on the findings.”

Tell us – Are you surprised by these claims against Gary King?

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