Lizzo ‘blindsided’ by sexual harassment lawsuit: ‘These were people that I gave opportunities to’

Lizzo sat down with Keke Palmer for her first in-depth interview after being sued for sexual misconduct and hostile workplace conditions last summer.

During Thursday’s episode of the “Baby, This is Keke Palmer” podcast, Lizzo explained that she “needed time to process” and “grow” before publicly talking about the situation, which caught her completely off guard.

“2023 was an amazing year for me,” she began. “It was a career-high, like, we had the Record of the Year at the Grammys for ‘About Damn Time,’ I was on my first arena tour and I got to bring the wonderful ‘Big Grrrl’ dancers from ‘Watch Out for the Big Grrls’ on stage with me every night. Like, I was literally living in my dream.”

However, things quickly soured after three of her former backup dancers — Arianna Davis, Crystal Williams and Noelle Rodriguez — filed a lawsuit against the “Good as Hell” singer and her Big Grrrl Big Touring company. 

“Then the tour ended, and three ex-dancers just completely, like, blindsided me with a lawsuit,” she told Palmer, 31.

Lizzo, 36, said she was “completely surprised” by the complaint and wasn’t given any warning they were planning to file it.

“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,” she said. “But even regardless of that, these were people that I gave opportunities to. These were people that — I liked and appreciated them as dancers, respected them as dancers.”

She continued, “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.”

In August 2023, the dancers sued the singer for sexual and racial harassment, claiming she created a hostile work environment and subjected them to weight-shaming and sexually denigrating behavior.

In the complaint, they claimed that Lizzo once forced them to touch nude performers at a nightclub and told them to eat “bananas protruding from the performers’ vaginas.”

Touching on the nightclub claims, Lizzo insisted that it was never “mandatory” for her dancers to come out with her and said she invited them as a courtesy.

She called most of the allegations “silly” and “ridiculous” but noted that the allegations of sexual harassment “upset [her] the most.”

“But let’s be clear, I did nothing wrong,” she added. “So I have no regrets, but I do have now this learned experience that is preparing me for the boss that I’m becoming.”

Lizzo has vehemently denied all the allegations levied against her despite more accusers coming forward.

While one lawsuit was recently dismissed, an insider close to the singer told Page Six she refuses to settle and won’t stop fighting these “false” allegations until they are all thrown out.

“There’s a reason that Lizzo continues to fight long after most public figures would have settled – because these allegations are false and can’t be allowed to stand,” we were told. “She is not going to stop fighting until every single one of these ridiculous smears is dismissed.”

Meanwhile, the case involving Davis, Williams and Rodriguez still appears to be going to trial.

The three plaintiffs’ attorney, Ron Zambrano, responded to Lizzo’s podcast comments Thursday in a statement shared with Page Six.

“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,” the statement read.

“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.”