Lizzo Blasts ‘Disgruntled’ Designer’s Harassment Lawsuit: ‘Meritless and Salacious’

Lizzo’s attorneys are firing back at a harassment and discrimination lawsuit filed by a former clothing designer for her tour, saying she’s nothing more than a “disgruntled” employee who was fired after she “played hooky” on the day of a concert.

Asha Daniels — who worked on Lizzo’s Special Tour earlier this year – sued Lizzo in September, claiming she’d faced a “culture of racism and bullying.” The lawsuit came weeks after another explosive case filed by three former backup dancers who made similar allegations against the superstar and her company.

But in a motion filed Friday in Los Angeles court, Lizzo’s attorney Martin D. Singer said the case must be tossed out immediately. Echoing a strongly-worded motion he filed to dismiss the dancers’ case, Singer called the lawsuit “meritless and salacious,” filed by “disgruntled” worker who had been fired after just three weeks on the job.

“During her brief employment by [Lizzo’s touring company], Plaintiff refused to comply with instructions from her supervisors and tour management, failed to perform the work that she was assigned and, eventually, just played hooky and refused to show up for work,” Singer wrote. “Unsurprisingly, she was terminated after abandoning her post on the day of a concert in Paris, France.”

In technical terms, Lizzo’s attorneys want Daniels’ case dismissed because it was filed in the wrong place. They say she has no connection to California that would allow her to sue there: “she is a New York resident who worked for a Delaware corporation in Europe,” Singer wrote. “She has alleged no nexus to California.”

In a statement on Monday, Daniels’ lawyers called Lizzo’s motion “yet another Hail Mary by Lizzo’s team to try to shift blame to the victims” of her alleged wrongdoing. “Lizzo and her lawyers can continue trying to rationalize her illegal and wretched conduct but we remain committed to seeking justice for our clients, and look forward to our day in court where Lizzo can explain her behavior in a public forum.”

The music world was shocked when Lizzo was sued in August by three former dancers (Arianna Davis, Crystal Williams and Noelle Rodriguez) who claimed, among other things, that the star singer had weight-shamed her employees. Those claims were not the core of the lawsuit, which alleged that the dancers experienced sexual harassment and a hostile work environment, including being pressured to touch nude dancers during a live sex show. But the accusation regarding body size was a particularly loaded allegation against an artist who has made body positivity a central aspect of her personal brand.

Daniels, who was hired to join the superstar’s world tour in February 2023 to alter and repair a wardrobe she’d previously designed for Lizzo’s dancers, sued several weeks later. In her complaint, she said dancers were forced to change in an area with “little to no privacy” and that the stage crew, “primarily white males, would lewdly gawk, sneer, and giggle” while watching them dress. She alleged that after expressing concern to Nomura about the lack of privacy, the wardrobe manager “laughed” and “advised” her not to tell anyone else about the issue or try to fix it.

Lizzo’s filing on Friday, seeking to dismiss that case, echoed an earlier motion filed by Singer in the case filed by the three dancers. In that filing, which advanced different legal arguments, Lizzo’s legal team called the case a “fabricated sob story” launched by “opportunists” seeking “a quick payday.” She said the dancers, like Daniels, had an “axe to grind” because they had been reprimanded for failing to perform their jobs adequately.

That motion is currently pending.