Lizzo was high off her Grammy win for Record of the Year for “About Damn Time” and had just wrapped her Special world tour when she was rocked by her former backup dancers accusing her of sexual harassment and fat-shaming.
Now, nearly three years have passed and Lizzo is still fighting the lawsuit. Although the 38-year-old acknowledged that she could easily put the long drawn-out legal battle behind her, Lizzo told Gayle King in a sit-down interview for CBS Mornings that she has no plans to settle the matter.
“I think it is an easy out, but I’m fighting the case because I know that it’s not true,” Lizzo said in the interview that aired Monday.
In August 2023, Lizzo was sued by three of her backup dancers — Crystal Williams, Arianna Davis, and Noelle Rodriguez — who accused the four-time Grammy winner of sexual harassment and creating a hostile work environment.
One of the most shocking claims was that Lizzo allegedly fat-shamed Davis and later fired her because of her weight gain. Lizzo, who is known for her messaging around body positivity, told King that she took the weight-shaming accusation seriously “because of what I mean to people.”
This past December, a judge dismissed some of the lawsuit’s central claims, including the fat-shaming accusation, but Lizzo still stands accused of allegedly peer-pressuring a dancer into touching a woman’s naked breast during a night out in Amsterdam’s Red Light District in February 2023.
While Lizzo also denies that accusation, she says that if the case ends up going to trial, she is prepared to take the stand and testify, joking, “I would look fabulous while doing it.”
“I’m not afraid of the truth,” she added. “The truth is less salacious than the headlines.”
Lizzo’s interview with King comes on the heels of the release of her new song “Bitch,” which serves as the lead track off her upcoming album Bitch, out June 5. Produced by Ricky Reed, Blake Slatkin, and Zack Sekoff, the track samples Meredith Brooks’ 1997 feminist anthem of the same name and Missy Elliott’s song, “She’s a Bitch.”
“I feel like what both of those women did was they pushed that word forward in a way that empowered it, instead of taking the power away,” Lizzo explained.
Eric Rojas*