A judge has dismissed allegations of fat-shaming against pop star Lizzo. These allegations were part of a 2023 lawsuit filed by three of her former dancers.
The singer, whose hits include the body-positive anthems “Good As Hell” and “Juice,” shared news of the legal win with a video statement posted to her Instagram and TikTok accounts.
“There was no evidence that I fired them because they gained weight. Because it never happened. Now the truth is finally out,” Lizzo said. “They weren’t fired for gaining weight. They were fired for taking a private recording of me without my consent and sending it off to ex-employees.”
“The fat-shaming claims against me have been have been officially dropped by my accusers,” wrote Lizzo in the video. ” They conceded it had no merit in court.”
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“I have never fired an employee for gaining weight. I have only encouraged and supported people with bigger bodies and shared my platform with them. “
Lizzo also stated her intention to continue fighting the lawsuit and expressed gratitude to her legal team. “I am not settling,” she said. “I will be fighting every single claim until the truth is out.
Although a judge dismissed the specific “fat-shaming” claims against Lizzo, the lawsuit is still moving forward against both her and her production company. The remaining case is centered on allegations of sexual harassment.
According to the BBC, a Los Angeles judge in 2024 allowed the case to move forward, rejecting the Lizzo team’s assertion that the lawsuit was a “fabricated sob story.”
The three dancers involved, Arianna Davis, Crystal Williams, and Noelle Rodriguez, claim that between 2021 and 2023, they were pressured to attend sex shows and interact with nude performers.
The claims against Lizzo include that she “pressured Ms. Davis to touch the breasts” of a dancer in a nightclub in Amsterdam.
Court documents state that Davis initially resisted the action but eventually agreed. She reportedly did so out of concern that refusing could harm her future with the team. The lawsuit also mentions other alleged events, including the claim that dancers were told to eat fruit off the nude bodies of sex club employees.
Lizzo’s legal team attempted to have the claims dismissed. They argued that the group outings were essential to the singer’s creative process and thus covered by the First Amendment’s free speech protection. This appeal was filed during the summer.
However, the attorney for the dancers disputed this, stating that merely asserting the sex shows inspired Lizzo’s performances was not enough to justify this protection.
“Under that standard,” wrote Ari Stiller, “Johnny Cash could shoot ‘a man in Reno just to watch him die’ and claim protection if he hoped it would inspire his performance”.
Lizzo’s attorney, Melissa Glass, dismissed Stiller’s request to allow the claims to proceed to trial, arguing that Stiller’s legal brief simply “regurgitates the false accusations from their original complaint.” Stiller had previously urged the court to allow the claims to proceed.
“As was true two years ago, the dancers cannot find a single person to corroborate their meritless claims,” Glass said in a statement to Billboard magazine.
“In contrast, 18 witnesses who worked with Lizzo on the Special tour submitted sworn statements refuting the claims made by Davis, Williams and Rodriguez. We look forward to the Court of Appeals ruling on this matter.”
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Lizzo has repeatedly denied the allegations against her. “I am very open with my sexuality and expressing myself but I cannot accept or allow people to use that openness to make me out to be something I am not,” she said when the claims first emerged in 2023.
The singer recently stated that the fat-shaming allegations have been “devastating to suffer through in silence” for the past two years, noting that the accusations had “haunted” her.
She also stressed that she has “only encouraged and supported people with bigger bodies and shared my platform with them.”
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