Seeking Arrangement Fires Back At Rachel Uchitel's Claims Website Wrongly Fired Her Over Matt Gaetz Scandal, Denies Florida Politician Had Account

The 46-year-old mother of one is suing for the rest of her six-month salary (which she alleged was $20,000 a month) and is seeking damages for emotional distress as well as a tarnished reputation.

The company is accusing Uchitel of "spreading a false narrative and violating her executed NDA."

"Ms. Uchitel was first brought to the attention of Seeking when UK tabloid news, The Daily Mail, published a story on her alleged romantic relationship with an individual she met on the website. First contact was made between Ms. Uchitel and the company on January 21, 2021," the spokesperson told us.

"On February 2, 2021, Ms. Uchitel entered into a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) with Seeking in order to exchange confidential company information concerning her engagement as a representative that extended through the entire time she was involved as a spokesperson," the rep went on. "She was never an employee of Seeking.com but was hired to act as a spokesperson on February 17, 2021, to create content and participate in media interviews, detailed in the Letter of Intent (LOI) that she made public today."

The spokesperson said that the company made the decision to "part ways" with Uchitel after three months because she was "often hard to work with, argumentative and it became difficult to pitch her story to the media for continued stories after the initial announcement of her role."

As for Uchitel's claims that her initial contract was for six months, the spokesperson told us, "After multiple conversations between the company and Ms Uchitel, it was clear that she would prefer to stay on in her role through the term but that a full agreement would be required, as required in the executed LOI. Multiple drafts of the full agreement were exchanged between the parties with the assumption the negotiation was complete and the agreement would be signed."

The rep insisted that Uchitel's termination was "in no way related to the state of affairs within the company, current events or any celebrities and/or politicians. Her remarks on Representative Gaetz have been entirely fabricated and are unfounded as at no time did Ms. Uchitel have personal knowledge of the website outside of those she may have met personally as a user of the site."

In her filing, Uchitel claimed she was told by the website's executives that the Gaetz scandal was "a very serious crisis for the company" and instructed her to not discuss it publicly.

Uchitel also claimed that she was used for crisis management, alleging that the company's CEO asked her to recruit four young women who used the site to film videos of themselves saying that Seeking Arrangement was not exploiting them.

She said she did so accordingly, only to be told that the site was going through a rebranding that required terminating her contract.

According to the company's rep, however, Seeking Arrangement "values the safety and security of its members above all else, prohibits any and all illegal activities, and strictly enforces those prohibitions. To enact such measures, Seeking has 24-hour moderation, provides ongoing training to staff to eliminate members who engage in inappropriate behavior, and uses keyword detection technology, image moderation and additional measures to eliminate those who attempt to misuse the site."

Additionally, the rep said the company "has not been served with any court documents nor have they been contacted by her counsel as it pertains to the allegations being reported." The spokesperson claims Seeking Arrangement learned of the allegations and lawsuit Thursday morning after "the press department at Seeking was contacted by multiple media outlets for comments in advance of pending stories set to run."

Nevertheless, the spokesperson said Seeking Arrangement was "prepared and look forward to litigating this matter in court."