A fashion designer who toured with Lizzo earlier this year filed a lawsuit against the singer and members of her team, alleging that while Lizzo preached body positivity and inclusion, her employees were forced to work in a “racist and sexualized” environment.
Asha Daniels filed a lawsuit in Los Angeles on Thursday against the star, her production company, her wardrobe manager Amanda Nomura and her tour manager Carline Gugliotta, alleging, among other things, that they made racist and homophobic comments and denied her medical care, leading to anxiety and PTSD.
“I felt like I was living in an insane asylum. It was totally shocking,” Daniels, 35, told NBC News. “I listened to this black woman on this huge stage with a message of self-love and caring for others, empathy, strength and standing up for others. I witnessed myself, the dancers and backing vocalists and my local team in every city were regularly harassed and harassed.”
Daniels claims in the suit, obtained by PEOPLE, that she designed custom pieces for dancers on Lizzo’s September 2022 tour, and was asked to join the tour a few months later to help keep the costumes in good condition.
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The designer claims she was “delighted” to work with the Grammy-winning singer, 35, as she admired her values - but instead faced a barrage of alleged harassment from Lizzo’s team.
The allegations are similar to a previous lawsuit filed in August by three of Lizzie’s former dancers who claim the tour was rife with sexual, racial and religious harassment. The “Truth Hurts” singer rejected all claims against her, saying on social networks that “she is not the villain that people and the media have portrayed me as in recent days.”
“Lizzo’s the boss so she’s done with,” Daniels’ attorney, Ron Zambrano, said in a statement. “She has created a sexualized and racially charged environment on her tours that her management staff sees as condoning such behavior, so it continues unchecked. Lizzo surely knows what’s going on, but she chooses not to put an end to this disgusting and illegal behavior and participates herself.”
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Lizzo performs at the Grammy Awards in February 2023. Kevin Winter/Getty
Lizzo’s rep, Stefan Friedman, tells PEOPLE in a statement, “While Lizzo is receiving a humanitarian award tonight from the Black Music Action Coalition for the incredible charity work she’s done to uplift all people, an ambulance-chasing lawyer is trying to tarnish that honor by recruiting someone to put up a fake, an absurd publicity stunt lawsuit, and who, wait a minute, has never actually met or even spoken to Lizzo. We’re going to give this as much attention as it deserves. None.”
In the lawsuit, Daniels alleges that she joined the tour in February and was often required to work long shifts, seven days a week, during which she was allegedly denied breaks. The lawsuit also claims Daniels was instructed never to communicate directly with Lizzo so as not to make her “jealous,” and was told not to “dress attractively” in front of the “About Damn Time” singer.
The filing alleges that Daniels witnessed a “culture of racism and bullying” and watched as Lizzo was “obscenely stared, sneered and sniggered” on the mostly white male stage as black dancers hurried through costume changes with little privacy.
Daniels claims she raised her concerns with Nomura, her supervisor, but was told to leave it alone. She also alleges that Nomura often made “racist and phobic comments” and that Nomura would mock not only Lizza’s dancers, but Lizza herself, doing impressions and calling black women on tour “stupid,” “useless” and “fat.”
The lawsuit also alleges that Daniels was twice denied medical care while on the job; in the first case, she and Nomura were moving a heavy clothes hanger when Nomura allegedly put the hanger over Daniels’ foot. After Daniels complained of pain, Nomura – who is also being sued for assault – allegedly shoved her into a rack and berated her for “apologising”. Daniels claims she rolled her ankle in the incident, and Nomura later made her wear “painful” sneakers instead of the orthopedic shoes she wore to work.
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Later, Daniels also claims that on the day she was fired, she had an allergic reaction, but was denied medical attention by Nomura and the management team.
Elsewhere in the filing, Daniels claims the manager sent the graphic photo to a group chat with dozens of people and that the crew “openly” discussed “hiring sex workers for lewd acts, attending sex shows and buying hard drugs” during the tour’s stop at Amsterdam.
Daniels says she expressed her concerns to Gugliotti, who was sympathetic, but who also allegedly told her after she was fired that Nomura “wanted [her] gone” because he spoke.
The lawsuit says Daniels “suffered persistent anxiety and panic attacks during the tour from a racist and sexist environment” and “continues to suffer from persistent anxiety and post-tour PTSD,” as well as “migraines and migraine-induced eye twitches and ocular distortions , brain fog and fatigue.”
The new filing comes a month after a lawsuit was filed by three of Lizzie’s dancers, who are each named in Daniels’ lawsuit. Daniels’ filing claims she watched as Arianna Davis, Crystal Williams and Noelle Rodriguez were “forced to change and change their clothes in small, cramped changing spaces … with little or no privacy.”
Lizzo’s attorney, Marty Singer, said his client plans to sue for “malicious prosecution.”
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Source: HIS Education