Model Kate Upton, 25, has told Time magazine that Guess co-founder Paul Marciano, now 65, grabbed her breasts at a 2010 lingerie shoot when she was 18.

"After I pushed him away, he said: 'I'm making sure they're real'," she recalled. The rebuff later led to her dismissal. "Someone had called my agency to say I had got fat."

But she was hired again though she said Marciano was upset that she wanted to bring her boyfriend to the shoot. He also fired a photographer who would not let Marciano stay in a room alone with her.

A year later, after Upton made the cover of Sports Illustrated magazine, Guess offered her US$400,000 for another campaign.

"Paul began texting that he would make sure to be on set. He told me that I wasn't allowed to bring my boyfriend," Upton said, adding that she turned down the offer.