America spent 35 years loving Bob Barker.
Now one of his longest-serving models is telling the story he spent nearly a decade trying to buy her silence to keep buried.
And what Bob Barker asked Holly Hallstrom to do when things got messy cost her her house, her savings, and left her living out of her car.
The Bob Barker Sexual Harassment Lawsuit Nobody Talked About
In 1994, fellow model Dian Parkinson sued Barker for sexual harassment, alleging he forced her into performing oral sex on him weekly for three and a half years.
Parkinson said she agreed to have sex with him only out of fear of losing her job.
Then Barker went on a PR offensive.
He wanted his Beauties to tour the talk shows and tell America that Parkinson was lying.
Hallstrom refused.
She didn't refuse because she was certain Parkinson was lying.
She refused because she wasn't certain – and she wasn't willing to perjure herself on national television to protect her boss.
Barker kept pushing.
He demanded Hallstrom appear on The Suzanne Somers Show. She went.
When Somers asked if Parkinson was lying, Hallstrom gave a non-answer.
That week, tabloids reported "Holly says Dian is lying."
She never said that. She called the publication and demanded a retraction. She got one.
She also got put on Bob Barker's enemies list.
The Price She Paid
In October 1995 – the same week Barker was touring television declaring total vindication after Parkinson dropped her lawsuit – Hallstrom was fired.
The stated reason: weight gain from prescription medication.
Hallstrom says the real reason is documented in court testimony from multiple witnesses.
Fellow Barker's Beauties Kathleen Bradley and Janice Pennington both testified on her behalf. Both were later fired from the show.
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Barker then came after Hallstrom with a lawsuit for libel and slander.
What followed was nearly a decade of financial destruction.
She spent every dollar she had. She sold her house. She lived out of her car.
Barker spent that same stretch fighting to prevent the case from ever reaching a courtroom.
He dropped his own lawsuit 48 hours before trial.
The court declared Hallstrom the prevailing party and ordered Barker to pay her legal fees.
She countersued for wrongful termination and malicious prosecution.
Two days before trial, Barker and CBS settled for a reported multimillion-dollar sum.
Hallstrom turned down every settlement offer that included a nondisclosure agreement.
"I refused to give up and let that evil old bastard win," she said.
CBS Protected Bob Barker for 35 Years While His Models Got Fired
Here's the part that should make you angry.
While Hallstrom was selling her house and sleeping in her car, CBS was handing Bob Barker 14 Daytime Emmy Awards and the title of executive producer.
When he retired in 2007, they named a studio after him at CBS Television City.
Time magazine named him the Greatest Game Show Host of All Time.
The same network that employed every woman who ever sued that show – for sexual harassment, for racial discrimination, for wrongful termination – spent decades standing behind the man at the center of it all.
That's not an accident.
That's how institutions work when a powerful man is generating ratings and revenue.
The women who wouldn't play along got fired, got sued, got blacklisted.
The man who ran the operation got a lifetime achievement Emmy.
Deborah Curling, who screened contestants for the show for 24 years, filed suit in 2007 alleging that Barker had systematically targeted anyone who crossed him or refused to follow his orders – regardless of whether those orders were legal.
She alleged that after she testified on Hallstrom's behalf, he subjected her to a hostile work environment and racial slurs.
A judge dismissed the case in 2009.
The show settled or fought every case.
The public kept watching.
America kept loving the silver-haired man who told them to have their pets spayed or neutered.
She Waited Until He Was Dead to Tell It
Hallstrom tells Fox News Digital she tried to go public once before, but Barker killed the story.
"I had to wait until I was sure he was surely dead," she said.
Barker died in August 2023. He was 99.
He never spent a day in court on any of this.
The new E! documentary Dirty Rotten Scandals premieres tonight and it is the first time the full record has been laid out publicly.
Hallstrom's testimony is court-documented.
Her witnesses were fired.
The man who sued her to silence her dropped his own lawsuit 48 hours before a judge could hear the evidence – then went on television and called every woman who sued him a liar.
Hallstrom turned down the money that came with silence.
She took less money to keep her right to speak.
She refused to let a powerful man and a powerful network write the final paragraph of her story.
Bob Barker got the Emmys, the studio, and the magazine cover.
Holly Hallstrom got her car – and then she beat him anyway.
That's the kind of story they don't put on the front page.
They should.
Sources:
- Stephanie Nolasco, "Former 'Price Is Right' Model Exposes Dark Truth About Bob Barker Era," Fox News, March 18, 2026.
- "Bob Barker's Beauties Speak on Alleged 'Price Is Right' Misconduct," Complex, March 2026.
- "The Untold Truth of Bob Barker," Grunge, August 2023.
- "Price Is Right Model Lawsuit: Latest in a History of Harassment Claims," TIME, September 2011.
- "Holly Hallstrom," Wikipedia, January 2026.
