Jury Awards Erin Andrews $55 Million For Naked Video Lawsuit
Jun. 21 2018, Updated 3:44 p.m. ET
Erin Andrews was awarded a whopping $55 million in her case against Marriott Hotels, after a stalker booked a room next to her and secretly recorded her naked.
The 37-year-old former ESPN sportscaster previously sobbed on the stand as she recalled hearing from a friend that the peephole footage taken in Nashville was on the web.
"I said, 'No, there's not, I don't do that!' " Andrews said. She sued the hotel conglomerate for $75 million for her humiliating experience, claiming they had given her room information to the man who booked a room next to her and filmed her.
"I saw it for 2 seconds, and I thought, 'Oh, my God,' and I shut it down, and I said, 'I have to call you back,'" she said. "And I called my parents. I was just screaming."
Andrews also told the jury about the hysterical phone call she made to her father revealing the humiliating news:
"And I said I was naked all over the Internet. I didn't know where it was. I said, 'Dad! I'm naked all over the Internet. I don't know what it is! I don't know where I am!' I even got a call from the hotel asking if everything was was OK because I was screaming so loud."
Andrews is suing the hotel for $75 million for allegedly failing to protect her privacy from a stalker who obtained the information about which room she was staying in, then booked the room next to her and filmed her naked through the peephole.
"My biggest fear was that the longer it was on the Internet, it was going to blow up and blow up and blow up and go viral and get page view and be really bad," she said as she cried on the witness stand.
"I just kept saying, 'We gotta get it down. We gotta get it down.' And we can't get it down! And we're never going to get it off."
Andrews also testified that she was accused of taking advantage of the video.
"Probably, for like three months, everyone thought it was a publicity stunt," she said. "That ripped me apart."
The $55 million award was $20 million less than the $75 million Andrews had sued for.
The jury found West End Hotel Partners, the owner of the Nashville Marriott, responsible for a little more than $26 million, and the stalker, Michael David Barrett, responsible for a little more than $28 million. He is serving a two and a half year prison sentence.
The jurors took pictures with Andrews after the verdict was read and she signed autographs, ABC News reported.
After the jury was announced, Andrews released the following statement on Twitter: