Lizzo Speaks on Being ‘Surprised’ by Sexual Harassment Lawsuit: ‘None of This Was True’ and ‘I Did Nothing Wrong’

Thania Garcia

19 December 2024 at 4:31 pm·4-min read

Lizzo has spoken up regarding the harassment cases filed against her last year.

The Grammy winner was accused by multiple people of harassment in the workplace, including claims from three of her former dancers and her former stylist. The latter, filed last September, was recently dismissed by a California federal court judge who granted the partial motion on the basis that the former stylist, Asha Daniels, had no standing to sue Lizzo. Daniels is still pursuing legal action against Lizzo’s touring and payroll companies.

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Now that Lizzo, as an individual, has been dismissed from the case, she’s free to speak about the allegations and the lawsuit in great detail. “We’re continuing to fight the other claims until they’re all dismissed — not dropped, but dismissed,” Lizzo told Keke Palmer in a new episode of the “Baby, This Is Keke Palmer” podcast (Spotify). “It is a big victory.”

Daniels’ lawsuit alleged that she experienced sexual and racial harassment by individuals on the singer’s management team. She also alleged that there was a hostile work environment and overtime hours worked were unpaid.

The lawsuit filed by dancers Arianna Davis, Crystal Williams and Noelle Rodriguez accused Lizzo of sexual harassment and creating a hostile work environment. Among those charges: alleged sexual, religious and racial harassment, disability discrimination, assault and false imprisonment, among a slew of other charges.

“The hardest part about all this is that none of these things were true,” she said. “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.”

Perhaps the most salacious claim came from one of the dancers who said they were pressured — due to fear of losing their jobs — to touch nude dancers during a live sex show in Amsterdam’s Red Light District, notoriously known for its prostitution, sex theaters, nude bars and clubs.

While at a nude bar called the Bananenbar, Davis claimed Lizzo invited her tour dancers to take turns touching the nude performers, catching sex toys launched from the performers’ vaginas, and eating bananas protruding from the performers’ vaginas. “Lizzo then turned her attention to Ms. Davis and began pressuring Ms. Davis to touch the breasts of one of the nude women performing at the club,” the lawsuit stated. “Lizzo began leading a chant goading Ms. Davis. Ms. Davis said three times, loud enough for all to hear, ‘I’m good,’ expressing her desire not to touch the performer.”

In conversation with Palmer, Lizzo expressed she would never talk about this interaction again after providing the following clarifications: “I went [to Bananenbar] on my own because I was in Amsterdam… I didn’t take [the dancers, the plaintiffs] anywhere. They came to the club I was at, and it was no mandatory invitation, and I didn’t even know that those two particular dancers [plaintiffs] were coming. Mind you, only two of them came, even though all three of them said they did, it was only two.”

Lizzo goes on to explain the “fun environment” of the Bananenbar that night, describing it as a “very consensual” experience.

“Do you feel looking back on the situation that maybe your casual personality could have been misconstrued as ‘I gotta do this, because this is my boss?'” asked Palmer. “I don’t think that people who I employ should even be privy to how I am in a bar at this point,” Lizzo said in response. “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.”

The interview concluded with Lizzo teasing her new album, which she says is finished. “A lot of the music is me talking things through,” she said. “I remembered my purpose… I’m putting everything in my art.”

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