Lizzo Is Facing A Second Lawsuit Over Her Tour Work Environment, Alleging Sexual Harassment, Disability Discrimination, Assault, And Other Violations

Following charges of sexual harassment and fat shaming from dancers on her tour, Lizzo is now dealing with a hostile work environment complaint from another former team member, fashion designer Asha Daniels.

Daniels filed the bombshell complaint in a federal court in California, stating that she was the subject of sexual harassment, racial harassment, disability discrimination, and even violence during her brief stint on The Special Tour.

The charges mostly involve Lizzo’s personnel, and Daniels designated the “Truth Hurts” artist, her touring company, wardrobe manager Amanda Nomura, and tour manager Carlina Gugliotta as defendants.

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Daniels first assisted Lizzo’s tour in September 2022, according to the almost 50-page action, when she “designed custom pieces for the dancers.” The aforementioned Nomura then contacted Daniels in January 2023 to inquire about the potential of Daniels taking on an in-person role to verify that the dancers’ clothes were “altered and repaired correctly.”

According to the lawsuit, the plaintiff “rearranged her schedule, canceling her fashion show and missing out on other work opportunities to accept joining” the tour “as a favor to” Nomura, who was her key management point of contact. (Of course, the remuneration and possible career benefits were obviously considered as well.)

In any case, Daniels “was looking forward to” joining the tour because of Lizzo’s publicly proclaimed principles, “i.e., a healthy, diverse environment with virtues of respect and empowerment of women,” according to the complaint.

But, according to Daniels, who claims to have “often” worked seven days a week, from 6 a.m. to 2 a.m., when the plaintiff started on February 14th of this year, the “disappointing reality of working on” the tour “sunk in” all at once.

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Furthermore, Nomura allegedly denied Daniels breaks and “constantly monitored and policed” her contacts, believing that the pressure “to always work while she was on tour” stemmed from orders given by Lizzo’s management.

Beyond these broad allegations and additional information about the professional environment (Daniels “was specifically instructed to never interact with LIZZO herself because LIZZO would be jealous,” according to the text), the plaintiff is said to have witnessed mistreatment of background dancers.

According to the complaint, about ten of these dancers were “forced to change in and out of their clothing in small, tight, changing areas during all the shows with little to no privacy whatsoever,” when members of the “stage crew, primarily white males,” would allegedly “lewdly gawk, sneer, and giggle while watching the dancers rush through their outfit-changes.”

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According to the legal document, Nomura allegedly “laughed at” the plaintiff’s related concerns and encouraged her “not to alert anyone else about the issue or try to fix the issue,” with Daniels later identifying the situation as “a set up to humiliate, degrade, alienate, and, in some cases, fire, the Black female performers.”

The plaintiff was then allegedly “forced to hear racist and fatphobic comments” from Nomura, who is accused of mocking “the dancers and LIZZO by doing an offensive stereotypical impression of a Black woman” before dismissing the plaintiff’s objections about the “offensive” behavior.

On the assault front, Daniels, who had allegedly been “promised that she would not have to perform physically demanding duties,” allegedly moved “a heavy rack of clothing” with Nomura immediately after beginning the work. Nomura allegedly “rolled the rack over” the plaintiff’s foot and “shoved” her onto the rack when told she needed a break due to the resulting agony.

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According to the complaint, Daniels subsequently lost her balance, damaged her ankle, and began wearing “orthopedic shoes” the next day to alleviate her pain. Nomura, on the other hand, allegedly “forced” her to change into “painful tennis shoes so that she could move heavy cases while injured.”

Finally, Daniels allegedly witnessed Nomura, the stage crew, and Lizzo’s management in Amsterdam “openly discussing hiring sex workers for lewd sex acts, attending sex shows, and buying hard drugs” – talks that allegedly made her feel “pressured to join such activities.”

The text also claims that in a separate incident, “a backstage manager sent a photo graphically depicting male genitalia” to a tour-staff group chat that included the plaintiff, and that Lizzo’s management “found the image to be comical, further encouraging an unsafe, sexually charged workplace culture.”

Despite allegedly being told not to approach management with workplace concerns, the plaintiff is said to have informed Carlina Gugliotta of the aforementioned alleged issues; the tour manager ostensibly relayed word of the alleged issues to Lizzo, but the “toxic work environment continued without change.”

Meanwhile, the plaintiff was reportedly “abruptly fired… without notice or reason” and then “placed on a flight home on March 6, 2023.” Daniels, who claims to have suffered from PTSD, anxiety, “migraines and migraine-induced eye twitch and ocular distortions, brain fog, and fatigue” as a result of her time on the tour, is suing for a range of damages, including medical expenditures.