Singer Lizzo’s official ‘Instagram’ account has lost nearly 220,000 followers since three former backup dancers sued her over alleged sexual harassment, a hostile work environment and pressuring them to participate in sex shows.
The fan dive began after news broke that former dancers Arianna Davis, Crystal Williams and Noelle Rodriguez had filed a shocking lawsuit against the Grammy Award-winning star, ‘Big Grrrl Big Touring’ and dance captain Shirlene Quigley, reported ‘nypost.com’.
According to the statistics site ‘Social Blade’, Lizzo has lost 219,570 ‘Instagram’ followers since the August 1 suit was filed. She lost nearly 170,000 ‘Instagram’ followers before she even responded to the alarming claims on Thursday. Despite the legal row, as of Sunday, Lizzo, whose legal name is Melissa Jefferson, still boasts 13.3 million followers on her official account @lizzobeeating.
In their suit, Davis, Williams and Rodriguez claimed that while on a concert trip to Amsterdam in February, Lizzo, 35, invited them for a night out, which ended in the city’s red-light district.
“Things quickly got out of hand. Lizzo began inviting cast members to take turns touching the nude performers, catching dildos launched from the performers’ vaginas and eating bananas protruding from the performers’ vaginas,” the suit claimed.
According to court documents, not only did Lizzo allegedly coerce cast members to touch and engage with nude performers, but she also purportedly deceived dancers into attending a second show.
The former dancers are suing for general and special damages, as well as punitive damages and attorneys’ fees.
“The stunning nature of how Lizzo and her management team treated their performers seems to go against everything Lizzo stands for publicly, while privately she weight-shames her dancers and demeans them in ways that are absolutely demoralising,” the plaintiffs’ lawyer, Ron Zambrano, said.
The ‘Juice’ songwriter addressed the bombshell claims in a lengthy statement posted on social media Thursday, calling the accusations ‘false’ and ‘unbelievable’.