Jess Battison
Lizzo’s former backup dancer has claimed she was told ‘dancers get fired for gaining weight’ before her contract was terminated.
The ‘Truth Hurts’ singer is currently facing a lawsuit accusing her of sexual harassment and creating a hostile work environment.
Filed on Tuesday (1 August) in Los Angeles Superior Court, and obtained by NBC News, it also alleges she subjected the group of dancers to an ‘excruciating’ audition after apparently levelling false accusations they were drinking before performances.
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The lawsuit, filed by three of her former dancers, also claims Lizzo, who is known for promoting body positivity, called attention to one dancer’s weight.
They say she later fired her after recording a meeting as a result of a health condition.
Former dancers Arianna Davis and Crystal Williams, who both took part in the singer’s Emmy-winning reality series Watch Out For The Big Grrrls, have now spoken out in the wake of the lawsuit becoming public.
Arianna claimed to TMZ: “I had felt for a really long time they were questioning my abilities due to weight gain. It was never explicitly said, ‘Hey, you know, you’re gaining weight, your job is in jeopardy.’ It was never that, it was very nuanced, it was very under the rug.
“And I think that language was used to keep from being cancelled. Previously she had said she was worried about me at South by South West and when I was at South by South West, that was the first time I had showed up to a Lizzo event or gig noticeably having gained weight.
“There was nothing different about me, my performance skills were the same, my demeanour was the same, my energy was the same – the only thing that was different about me was my weight.
“In this meeting she stated as well that ‘you know, dancers get fired for gaining weight’ and then she kinda paused and looked at me. I still don’t know if she really meant to single me out in that moment, but when she looked at me and she said that, I was kind of like ‘she’s really concerned about my weight’.”
Arianna went on to claim that in a private meeting, she couldn’t ‘get away with not telling them something personal’. So she told them she ‘struggles with anxiety and depression and is in recovery for an eating disorder’.
The dancer claims this admission was used to justify firing her.
Elsewhere in the lawsuit, it is claimed that at strip club Bananenbar, Lizzo allegedly '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'.
Just a week later in Paris, Lizzo is claimed to have invited the dancers to a club so 'they would be able to learn something or be inspired by the performance'.
But the suit says 'Lizzo failed to mention when inviting the dancers to this performance was that it was a nude cabaret bar'.
The former dancers claim those who did ‘have fun’ with Lizzo and would ‘be down for anything’ were favoured, getting hired for more shows and invited on private jets to tropical locations.
Lizzo is yet to comment publicly.
UNILAD has contacted Lizzo's reps for comment.