Fans were shocked in 2023 when several former dancers of Lizzo filed a sexual harassment lawsuit against the “Truth Hurts” singer. Now, more than a year later, the 36-year-old is recounting the experience, and how she was “completely surprised” by the allegations.
As Blavity previously reported, in August 2023, three of Lizzo’s former backup dancers filed a lawsuit against the singer, accusing her of sexual harassment and creating a hostile work environment. That lawsuit preceded another filed by the singer’s former tour stylist and designer, Asha Daniels. The latter case, which was filed in September 2023, has been dismissed by a California federal court judge who deemed Daniels had no standing to sue Lizzo. Daniels is still planning on suing Lizzo’s touring and payroll companies, Variety reported.
Because Lizzo (as an individual) has been dismissed from Daniels case, she is now able to speak about the lawsuit and allegations, and she did so while appearing on Keke Palmer’s podcast, Baby, This Is Keke Palmer.
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“We’re continuing to fight the other claims until they’re all dismissed — not dropped, but dismissed,” she told Palmer. “It is a big victory.”
Both Daniels and the dancers — Arianna Davis, Crystal Williams and Noelle Rodriguez — claimed they experienced sexual harassment at the hands of Lizzo’s management team. Daniels detailed experiencing racial harassment as well, and Davis, Williams and Rodriguez alleged sexual, religious and racial harassment; disability discrimination; and assault and false imprisonment, among other accusations.
On Palmer’s podcast, Lizzo doubled-down on her innocence.
“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.”
Regarding a particularly disturbing incident recounted in one of the dancer’s claims, during which dancers were forced to touch nude performers at a live sex show in Amsterdam, Lizzo said she’ll never talk about the situation after her explanation to Palmer.
“I went [to Bananenbar] on my own because I was in Amsterdam. … I didn’t take [the dancers, the plaintiffs] anywhere,” she said. “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 described the experience as “very consensual” in Bananenbar that night and described it as a “fun environment.”
When Palmer asked if Lizzo thinks that perhaps her “casual personality could have been misconstrued,” Lizzo admitted that moving forward, she won’t even do anything to put her in a position to be misconstrued.
“I don’t think that people who I employ should even be privy to how I am in a bar at this point,” she said. “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.”
During an emotional part in the interview, she got emotional and said that time for her was “very dark because of the feeling of betrayal…the wind was knocked out of me by people that I cared about.” She also said that “to feel betrayed on that level was like deeply earth-shattering,” and that the media “beefed it up” with “salacious headlines to sell clicks.”
“I had to learn a little bit of my innocence is gone,” she added. “And a little bit of my free spirit is gone for sure. Because that kind of mass betrayal, it’s hard for any person to take.”
As Lizzo continues to fight the allegations, she told Palmer that she’s planning a comeback and teased her new album.
“A lot of the music is me talking things through,” she said. “I remembered my purpose. … I’m putting everything in my art.”
