Model claims she was fired for getting pregnant, judge awards her $775,000 (€606,938)

Nov 21, 2012 10:19 GMT  ·  By
Former model on The Price Is Right claims producers fired, insulted her for getting pregnant
   Former model on The Price Is Right claims producers fired, insulted her for getting pregnant

Brandi Cochran lost her job as a model on The Price Is Right a little over 4 years ago. In 2010, she took producers to court, claiming she’d been fired for getting pregnant, but not before she’d been humiliated and treated like garbage.

Just hours ago, a judge ruled she had grounds for the claims, awarding her $775,000 (€606,938). TMZ notes that “more is to come.”

Cochran first became pregnant in 2007 but she was so afraid she might lose her job because of it that she actually put off breaking the news to her bosses until the eleventh hour.

By that time, it was already too late, she claims in court documents: she had miscarried. One of the producers on the popular show actually told her that this was “nature’s way of getting rid of a bad baby,” Cochran alleges in her filing.

She fell pregnant again in 2008 but, this time, she informed her bosses of it, only to be subject to plenty of humiliations and teases at work, including the label “wide load coming through.”

When she had to go on medical leave because of some complications with the pregnancy, Cochran was fired.

“Now, a jury has decided in her favor, awarding Cochran $775,000 [€606,938] in damages – and she could walk away with more if the jury finds the producers acted maliciously, which opens up the possibility of punitive damages,” TMZ reports.

A spokesperson for the production company behind The Price Is Right has issued a statement to say the judge’s ruling isn’t fair.

“[It’s] the result of a flawed process. [The court] refused to allow the jury to hear and consider that 40% of our models have been pregnant and other important evidence to our defense,” the publicist says.

“We expect to be fully vindicated after the matter has been reviewed and stand behind executive producer Mike Richards and the staff of The Price is Right,” the rep adds in the same statement.