Lizzo Says She Was ‘Blindsided’ by Harassment Lawsuit & That She ‘Did Nothing Wrong’

Lizzo is speaking out amid her ongoing lawsuit accusing her of harassment.

The “About Damn Time” singer joined Keke Palmer on the latter’s Baby, This Is Keke Palmer podcast on Thursday (Dec. 19), where she discussed the harassment lawsuit brought by three of her former dancers in August 2023.

The lawsuit, filed in Los Angeles by dancers Arianna Davis, Crystal Williams and Noelle Rodriguez, accuses Lizzo (real name Melissa Jefferson) and her Big Grrrl Big Touring Inc. of a wide range of legal wrongdoing and included dozens of pages of detailed allegations. Lizzo denied the claims in a response shared to Twitter, calling them “false allegations” and “sensationalized stories.”

During her interview with Palmer, Lizzo reflected on the busy year that started out with her first arena tour. “I was literally living in my dream, and then the tour ended, and three ex-dancers just completely, like, blindsided me with a lawsuit,” she said. “I was very deeply hurt because these were three ex-dancers, so they weren’t on the tour. They didn’t, like, finish the tour out with us. But even regardless of that, these were people that I gave opportunities to.”

She added, “These were people that — I liked them and appreciated them 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, they’re trying well, 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.”

Lizzo said that she’s learning from the experience moving forward, but concluded by noting, “Let’s be clear, I did nothing wrong.”

The plaintiffs’ attorney Ron Zambrano responded to Lizzo’s comments in a statement to Billboard, writing, “There is an utter lack of awareness by Lizzo failing to see how these young women on her team who are just starting their careers would feel pressured to accept an invitation from their global celebrity boss who rarely hangs out with them. There is a power dynamic in the boss-employee context that Lizzo utterly fails to appreciate. We stand by the claims in the lawsuit and are prepared to prove everything in court with Lizzo on the stand under oath before a jury of her peers, not spouting nonsense and lies rationalizing a failure to take accountability on a podcast.”