Erin Andrews Recalls 'Screaming, Crying' After Nude Hotel Video Leak: 'I Thought My Career Was Over'
Erin Andrews recalled the horror of finding out there was nude video of her splashed across the internet.
Sept. 3 2026, Published 2:32 p.m. ET
Erin Andrews recalled phoning her parents in a state of hysterics after discovering nude footage of her, secretly recorded by a hotel-room peephole voyeur, had been splashed across the internet, RadarOnline.com can reveal.
The longtime Fox NFL sideline reporter, 48, revealed she feared her career and reputation were destroyed after the intimate video surfaced online in 2009. The scandal ultimately led to an Illinois man being sentenced to prison for stalking the then-ESPN college football reporter and secretly filming her.
Erin Anderws Called Her Parents 'Screaming and Crying' Over Nude Video
Erin Andrews said her dad thought she was 'in a car accident' because she was 'screaming so hard.'
"I called my mom and dad right away. I was screaming and crying because it was me, and I was n-ked in a hotel room, walking around, and my out-of-body experience started screaming," Andrews recalled to host Alex Cooper on the Wednesday, September 2, episode of the Call Her Daddy podcast.
The longtime sports journalist said a friend who worked at a blog first alerted her to the shocking footage. Andrews initially refused to believe it was really her because she "just didn't" make nude videos, but after he sent her a copy, she completely lost it.
"My dad said when I called he thought I was in a car accident because I was screaming so hard," Andrews remembered, adding that she immediately feared for the career and wholesome reputation she had worked so hard to build. "We talked about how much, like, I love the job, how I liked kind of being the girl next door."
'No One's Going to Take Me Seriously Ever Again'
Erin Andrews feared her credibility was shot and her career was 'over.'
"And I just said to my dad, 'It's over. My career is over. Like no one's going to take me seriously ever again.' That's all I ever wanted, right?" Andrews told Cooper about the conversation.
She recalled thinking, "Were people to turn on me and just say, 'Oh my gosh, I would love to have a beer with her and talk football with her, or I'd love to do a sit-down interview with her.'"
"And I just thought, 'This is so dirty. No one's going to ever want to work with me again, talk to me again. This is gross. This changes who I am.'"
Erin Andrews' Voyeur Listened for When She Was Showering
Erin Andrews was stalked to adjacent hotel rooms where the suspect knew when she was showering.
Andrews came to find out, following an FBI investigation, that there was "this disgusting person following me around, and he was setting up his cell phone right up to my hotel room."
The mother-of-one revealed how stalker Michael David Barrett followed her around the country while she was reporting on college football and "would ask for a room next to me, and the hotel never alerted me that this was happening."
As a result, the hotel would put him in the room next door, where Barrett was able to "wait and listen, and he could tell when I was getting into the shower cause he could hear it, and he would stand there with a camera, and he filmed me getting ready" through a rigged peephole.
Never Miss an
Daily updates from the heart of Hollywood, right to your inbox
By entering your email and clicking Sign Up, you’re agreeing to let us send you customized marketing messages about us and our advertising partners. You are also agreeing to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.
Erin Andrews Was Awarded a Massive Judgement After Suing Stalker and Hotel
Erin Andrews was awarded $55 million in damages from a civil lawsuit over the nude video.
Once Barrett got the video of Andrews in the buff, he would "put it on the internet, and as you know, when something's on the internet, it doesn't come down," she said.
"So it was a lot. It was a lot that I put my family through with all of it," she said of the experience.
Andrews ended up suing Barrett, as well as the operators of the Nashville Marriott at Vanderbilt University, where the video was taken.
A jury awarded her a whopping $55 million in damages following a 2016 civil trial.
