Source: SAUL LOEB / Getty
Lizzo is glad that she will not be bringing legal worries into the new year. She reveals she was totally blindsided by her former staff’s sexual harassment claims.
As spotted on Variety Magazine the singer received a favorable decision regarding a high profile lawsuit. Back in 2023 her ex stylist and dance troupe made some very damming allegations against her including sexual harassment, body shaming and fostering a toxic work environment. Earlier this month a California federal judge dismissed the case and ruled that her former dancers and stylist had no grounds to sue her (they are still pursuing damages from Lizzo’s touring company and payroll agency).
Naturally the “Truth Hurts” singer said very little about the lawsuit while the case was still open. Now that it is formally behind she is speaking up about the entire ordeal. She recently paid a visit to the This Is Keke Palmer podcast and she made it clearly she was just as surprised by the filing as everyone else was. “The hardest part about all this is that none of these things were true,” she explained. “I was completely surprised. I was very deeply hurt because these were three dancers; that I gave opportunities to. These were people that I liked and appreciated as dancers, respected them as dancers. So I was like, ‘What?!’ But then I heard all the other things, like sexual harassment, and I was like, ‘I don’t know what they’re trying to do,’ but these are the types of things that the media can turn into something that it’s not.”
In the lawsuit the troupe detailed an evening out in Amsterdam’s Red Light District where they claim Lizzo pressured them to interact with nude performers. While Lizzo denied that their account of the evening was factual, Keke responded objectively asking “Do you feel looking back on the situation that maybe your casual personality could have been misconstrued as ‘I got to do this, because this is my boss?’” Lizzo admitted that the experience has taught her how to move more tactfully when it comes to engaging with her staff. “I think that this experience taught me healthy boundaries, but to be real with you, it was such a fun night… I think there’s a time where there’s a difference between having boundaries and professional boundaries… It’s nuanced. It’s a new conversation in this industry.”
You can watch Lizzo discuss this and her upcoming new album below.