Below Deck Sailing Yacht star Gary King has apparently been quietly pulled from the BravoCon 2023 lineup in the aftermath of his sexual misconduct scandal.
King was initially listed as a guest in August when it was announced that the event was heading to Las Vegas. However, King no longer appears on the website and was not featured in the schedule, which was released on Friday, September 22. A source has since told Us Weekly that his status is “undetermined” at this point.
Former production assistant Samantha Suarez recently accused King of making unwanted advances while filming season 4 of the hit Bravo series, detailing their alleged interactions with King in a Rolling Stone exposé last month. According to Suarez and other former employees who asked to remain anonymous, Bravo allegedly helped cover up King’s inappropriate behavior.
“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,” one of the accusers claimed. “I had to promote and make this guy who just assaulted someone look awesome. That was my job, to make this person look cool, capable, and exciting.”
Suarez recalled being put in charge of King after he allegedly got drunk when filming was over for the day. She initially kept an eye on him in his room before attempting to leave.
“[I said], ‘I have to go — I need to go bring other people water and food,’ and he’s like, ‘No, no, please,’” she claimed to the outlet. “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.’”
King allegedly pressed himself against Suarez as she turned toward the door. He allegedly refused to let her leave until she started to fight back, which is when a talent manager called Suarez’s phone.
“I’m freaking out, and [the talent manager] 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,” she claimed. “He’s in the hallway in his underwear and it’s all weird and f—ked up, and so I’m just like, ‘Just go back in your room and don’t come out.’”
Suarez told the outlet that she immediately alerted producers about the incident. King was subsequently told to sleep on the boat during “dark days” when the crew wasn’t filming as a way to keep him out of the hotel.
Bravo addressed the allegations in a statement to Rolling Stone, noting, “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.”
Meanwhile, a spokesperson for Below Deck’s production company, 51 Minds Entertainment, added, “51 Minds is committed to providing an environment in which every member of the casts and crews on our productions feel respected and, most importantly, safe. 51 Minds provides mandatory harassment and sensitivity training for every series it produces at the outset of each new season and lays out a clear process on how and to whom to report any questionable activity.”
The statement continued: “With any complaint filed, a timely investigation is launched and, based on the findings, appropriate actions are implemented to ensure the safety of our cast and crew, up to and including termination. With regard to the incident reported by Ms. Suarez involving Mr. King, the case was investigated and reviewed as soon as it was submitted, and production acted accordingly based on the results.”
King has remained largely tight-lipped about the accusations but briefly offered his side of the story in since-deleted Instagram comments, appearing to question Suarez’s claims.
“It’s so weird, it’s also so far from the truth. She always wanted a platform and unfortunately I’m the unlucky target,” he wrote one day after the report was published. “I’m not going to let some lying girl get to me… read that article fully, multiple times, and this happened to her on multiple seasons … seems odd.”
King also went on to slam the unnamed crew members who alleged he would repeatedly make other women uncomfortable on set. “Please tell me who I’ve harassed from bd … if I did I’m sure they would have said something and not some random person,” he continued. “Please can you tell me where I have sexually harassed multiple women … you’re watching the wrong show pal.”
Us Weekly has reached out to Bravo for comment.
