Stalking Miss America

Former Miss America Gretchen Carlson has come forward about her stalker and other harassment experiences in her new book Getting Real.

Carlson won the beauty pageant back in 1989. Afterward she launched an impressive broadcast journalism career, appearing on several news stations and eventually FOX News. From the outside looking in, things might appear to have been okay, but in actuality, she was being terrorized by a stalker.

After the pageant, stranger Constantine Kargas began stalking the beauty queen. This strange man followed her to two different cities. Carlson says he also stalked her parents. For a while, there was nothing legally she could do about it. Kargas kept following her through her career, planning their wedding and sending gifts to her job like roses and even a diamond ring. Carlson spent her life afraid that he would figure out where she lived. Finally, at some point there was enough evidence that police could arrest Kargas for “menacing by stalking.' He was convicted and received a 3-year sentence, but it was reduced to probation. At the end of it all, Constantine Kargas only served 70 days of jail time although he never contacted Gretchen Carlson again.

Gretchen Carlson says she's coming forward to give other women the strength to do so too. She knows from experience that women and especially celebrity women have a tough time admitting to being assaulted and harassed. She says she knows it can happen because it happened to her multiple times. In another incident, a top executive allegedly forced her head into his crotch. There was another incident with an additional man after that one. Her harassment was never-ending.

In addition to writing her book, Gretchen Carlson also wrote a Huffington Post article about her experience. She hopes to shed some light on the situation. Her book Getting Real was released June 16.

-Matré Grant