December 30th 2023.
Paula Abdul, the singer and TV judge, has accused American Idol producer Nigel Lythgoe of sexual assault. Abdul first rose to fame in the 1980s with her music career, and in 2002 she joined the original judges panel of American Idol alongside Simon Cowell and Randy Jackson.
Since then, she's been a judge on a number of TV shows, including The X Factor, So You Think You Can Dance, and The Masked Dancer.
On Friday 29 December, Abdul filed a lawsuit in Los Angeles alleging that Lythgoe, 74, had sexually assaulted her on multiple occasions while she was working on American Idol in the early 2000s. The suit listed Lythgoe and the show's production companies as defendants, with the ‘listed causes of action’ being ‘sexual assault/battery, sexual harassment, gender violence, and negligence’.
According to the suit, which was reviewed by Rolling Stone, Lythgoe verbally insulted and belittled Abdul before she officially joined American Idol as a judge. It also alleged that she was paid less than the male judges on the show.
In one instance, the suit claims that while the pair were travelling to auditions, Lythgoe sexually assaulted Abdul in a hotel elevator. It stated that he ‘shoved Abdul against the wall, then grabbed her genitals and breasts, and began shoving his tongue down her throat’.
The suit also alleges that in 2014, Lythgoe ‘forced himself on top of Abdul while she was seated on his couch’ at his home. He is said to have ‘attempted to kiss her while proclaiming that the two would make an excellent “power couple”’.
Abdul reportedly did not speak out publicly over the sexual assault allegations against Lythgoe due to fear that he could retaliate and potentially fire her from her TV judging jobs. The suit claimed that her contracts on American Idol and So You Think You Can Dance ‘prohibited’ her ‘from publicly disclosing sensitive information’.
According to her suit, Abdul filed her lawsuit under California’s Sexual Abuse and Cover-Up Accountability Act. This law provides survivors of sexual assault with a window where they can file a claim, which would have otherwise been prevented by the statute of limitations.
The Agency has contacted representatives of Nigel Lythgoe and Fremantle North America, which produces American Idol, for comment. So far, Lythgoe has yet to comment on the claims.
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