Photo Credit: Lizzo by Shawn Miller for the Library of Congress / Public Domain
A federal judge dismissed the remaining claims against Lizzo and her production company in a long-running lawsuit filed by her former wardrobe stylist.
On Tuesday, a federal judge dismissed the remaining claims against Lizzo’s production company in a lawsuit filed by her former wardrobe stylist. The ruling arrives almost two years after U.S. District Judge Fernando L. Aenlle-Rocha dismissed Lizzo as an individual defendant from the case, filed against the singer and her company, Big Grrrl Big Touring, by Asha Daniels.
Daniels first filed her lawsuit in September 2023, alleging that she had been subject to an “unsafe, sexually charged workplace culture” where she was the target of bullying, sexual, and racial harassment. At the same time, Lizzo was the subject of a separate lawsuit filed by three backup dancers a month prior. Lizzo denied all allegations in both lawsuits; her lawyers called Daniels’ claims “meritless and salacious” accusations.
Judge Aenlle-Rocha said in his ruling that Daniels failed to identify conduct by company employees that would constitute “general hostility” toward women or separate treatment between men and women at the workplace.
“This alleged conduct and these alleged incidents, while inappropriate and unprofessional, fall within the scope of what the Supreme Court has held to be outside the protection of Title VII as part of the ‘ordinary tribulations of the workplace,’” the judge wrote.
Regarding an injury Daniels claimed to have sustained from another wardrobe employee, “the court does not seek to minimize or disregard the pain plaintiff felt from these injuries.” However, they did not meet the requirements set forth by the American Disabilities Act (ADA) in order for Daniels to claim disability discrimination against the company.
Lizzo expressed her relief over the ruling in an Instagram post. “I prayed for the truth to come out, and thanks to my incredible lawyers, the truth has prevailed.”
A separate lawsuit still lingers—the one filed by three former backup dancers who accused Lizzo of creating a hostile work environment. That lawsuit alleged that the singer, an outspoken advocate for body positivity, had berated a dancer for gaining weight and pressured another to touch a nude performer at a club in Amsterdam. A judge dismissed some of the claims in December.
Meanwhile, Lizzo has stressed that she refuses to settle and will fight “every single claim until the truth comes out.”
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