'Won't Go Nanny' Speaks Out To KNX: Family Was 'Trying To Exploit Me'
UPLAND (CBSLA.com) — The 64-year-old live-in nanny who has come under national fire for refusing to leave an Upland family's home is speaking out for the first time.
Ralph and Marcella Bracamonte hired Diane Stretton via Craigslist, offering her room and board for taking care of their three children.
After the first few months, the Bracamontes said Stretton stopped working and refused to leave her room.
The family said they fired Stretton on June 6, but she told them she wasn't going to budge.
Stretton told KNX 1070's Charles Feldman, however, that she was never terminated by the couple.
'Won't Go Nanny' Speaks Out To KNX: 'I Wasn't Fired'
"Well, first of all, I wasn't fired, unless you can be fired after you quit. I quit two days before they fired me. And I gave 30 days of notice, which we had agreed to. Second of all, on the refusal to work, there's only two days, and this was after I'd been there for 90 straight days without a day off, that I didn't work. And those two days I had the flu so bad I was considering calling an ambulance. Again, this was after 90 days where I hadn't had a day off. When I was working there, I didn't get lunch breaks, I didn't get coffee breaks, I didn't get any holidays. Basically, I was working 24/7," she said.
Asked what her response is to those who consider her a con artist, Stretton said: "It's exactly the opposite. Anyone that would bring someone into their home and give them, whether the value of the room and board was $700 or $900 is kinda immaterial, that's a trivial value to exchange for 24/7 of doing their bidding, whatever they want, doing cooking, doing heavy house cleaning, taking care of kids. I was using a lot of skills a lot of people would not have had. And to expect all of that labor and trade for only room and board when I didn't have access to the laundry room hardly ever, I didn't have access to the bathroom hardly ever, the air conditioning wasn't on, I think they're the con artists."
'Won't Go Nanny' Speaks Out To KNX: Family Was 'Trying To Exploit Me'
"They were the ones that were trying to exploit me, as if I was some poor migrant worker from a foreign country that they could just exploit and work 24/7. I don't know who, if they knew the job ahead of time, I certainly wouldn't have taken it if I had known what they really had in mind," Stretton added.
In response to Stretton's interview, Marc Cohen, the Bracamonte family's attorney, said, "The family is deeply disturbed and absolutely denies all of those statements. It's absolutely not true."
Stretton, who is currently living in her car, has offered to move out of the home under certain conditions.
She said she wants a few days to move and the media to be gone. If that happens, Stretton said she'll exit by July 4.
Cohen said notices will be filed this week forcing Stretton to leave by next Monday. If she doesn't, a lawsuit will be filed.
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