Singing Star Lizzo is being sued by three of her former dancers over claims including sexual harassment and a hostile work environment.
The lawsuit, filed on Tuesday, includes accusations of sexual, religious, and racial harassment, discrimination, assault, and false imprisonment.
Arianna Davis, Crystal Williams, and Noelle Rodriguez are the former dancers bringing the lawsuit.
The suit was first reported by NBC.
The dancers accused Lizzo of calling attention to one dancer’s weight gain and later berating, then firing, that dancer after she recorded a meeting because of a health condition.
The plaintiff’s law firm also accuses the captain of Lizzo’s dance team of proselytizing other performers and deriding those who had premarital sex while sharing lewd sexual fantasies, simulating oral sex, and publicly discussing the virginity of one of the plaintiffs. NBC News
On one occasion while at a nightclub in Amsterdam, the lawsuit says, Lizzo began inviting employees to touch nude performers and handle dildos and bananas used in their performances.
Out of fear of retaliation, a dancer eventually “acquiesced” to touching the breast of a nude female performer despite repeatedly expressing no interest in doing so, the suit says.
Two of the plaintiffs, Ms. Davis and Ms. Williams were fired in the spring of 2023, the lawsuit says.
“The stunning nature of how Lizzo and her management team treated their performers seems to go against everything Lizzo stands for publicly, while privately she weight-shames her dancers and demeans them in ways that are not only illegal but absolutely demoralizing,” reads a statement provided to EW by Ron Zambrano, an attorney for the plaintiffs.
Two of the three dancers in the suit were dismissed, and Lizzo allegedly told her dance cast during a meeting that she had “eyes and ears everywhere,” referring a recording that Davis had made of a meeting. The dancers are seeking “damages that cover emotional distress including unpaid wages, loss of earnings, and attorney’s fees.” Entertainment Weekly
Source: Daily Mail, NBC, ABC, EW, Reuters
This doesn’t surprise me!