A journalist claims rocker Courtney Love once groped him without consent.
Frank Elaridi — who works mostly for ABC programs and digital platforms — said on Thursday’s episode of his “Quite Frankly” podcast that the incident took place “like six years ago” at Coachella when he was covering the music festival for “Nightline.”
“I think I was like 24 or something at the time — naive,” he explained. “They send me to Coachella to go do an interview with her. I’m at her afterparty, interviewing her in a side room, and then she’s like, ‘Come hang out with us!'”
Elaridi said he obliged and that the two took “a photo together.”
“And the second [the] photo’s done, she grabs my crotch, like, really hard. Like, grabs it like that,” he claimed, gesturing with his hands.
“I was caught off guard. There’s literally a photo ’cause somebody across the room snapped it [and] sent it to me.”
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In the picture, Love can be seen grabbing Elaridi’s crotch seemingly forcefully with her right hand. She appeared carefree and aloof, while his facial expression was one of surprise.
“Her hand is very clearly — like, there’s a photo of Courtney Love with her hand squeezing my balls basically,” he said.
Elaridi said he was “caught off guard.”Instagram/@felaridi
The journalist shared the photo on his podcast, “Quite Frankly,” on Thursday.Getty Images for BalmainElaridi’s podcast guest, musician Nahko Bear — who has been accused of sexual abuse but denies the allegations — asked, “So you’re gonna cancel her?”
Elaridi said the thought to “go after her” “10 years later” would “never cross [his] mind.”
“She’s a rock star in my head,” he explained. “Not to justify [her behavior] or say it’s OK, but in my head, that would never cross my mind to do that.”
Elaridi told his podcast guest, musician Nahko Bear, that he was not “trying to cancel her.”Instagram/@felaridi
Elaridi said he witnessed something similar on the set of “Dancing With the Stars” several years ago.Instagram/@felaridiHowever, he wondered whether the conversation was still worth having for the mere fact that “she’s a woman” and he’s “a man.”
Elaridi wrote a lengthy caption alongside the clip from his podcast on Instagram, noting that he didn’t want to “come off as a victim.”
Reps for Love, 58, did not immediately respond to Page Six’s request for comment.
Elaridi also recalled witnessing an allegedly similar dynamic when he was a backstage correspondent at “Dancing With the Stars” several years ago.
Reps for Love didn’t return our request for comment.Getty Images Without naming names — because he’s “not trying to get anybody canceled” — he claimed there was “an older woman on the show” who would be “flirting, jokingly” during joint interviews with “her dance partner” but would “be caressing his butt the whole time.”
Elaridi claimed the unidentified man would “look” at him with wide eyes and and an uncomfortable “smirk.”
“I can’t help but wonder why some people get chosen and others don’t,” he said.
