Lizzo Scores Legal Win as Dancers Drop Fat Shaming Appeal

Court cases rarely have plot twists, but this one does. Lizzo has picked up a legal win after a secret recording played a key role in weakening claims made by former dancers. While the lawsuit is not over, one major accusation has now been taken off the table.

The sexual harassment lawsuit was brought by dancers Arianna Davis, Noelle Rodriguez, and Crystal Williams. Part of their case claimed that Lizzo fat-shamed them. That claim, however, has now been dismissed, and the dancers have dropped their appeal.

Speaking to TMZ, Lizzo’s attorney Marty Singer and his partner Melissa Glass said the accusations never held up. They stated that 18 witnesses refuted the fat-shaming claims in court.

According to the attorneys, Davis was fired after making “an unauthorized recording of Lizzo in a dancer meeting and sent it to Williams, who was no longer working on The Special Tour.” The Superior Court judge agreed, ruling that Davis’s firing was justified because of the secret recordings.

With that ruling in place, the dancers chose not to continue appealing the dismissal of the fat-shaming claims.

The dancers’ legal team is not backing down entirely. In a statement to TMZ, their attorney Ronald Zambrano said, "We are maintaining that Judge Epstein was correct in his ruling denying Lizzo's special motion to strike the vast majority of claims they attacked, including false imprisonment and harassment. Of the couple of claims Judge Epstein did dismiss, the plaintiffs have taken a considered approach to leave that be. One would hope to see the same level of intellectual honesty and neutral assessment from the defendants, but that hasn’t been the case thus far and it’s disappointing."

In short, the dancers are accepting the loss of some claims while standing firm on others they believe still matter.

Even with the fat-shaming allegations dismissed, Lizzo is not completely in the clear. Other accusations remain part of the lawsuit.

In their filing, the women claimed that Lizzo pressured them to interact with naked sex performers at Bananenbar in Amsterdam. The venue is described as a place where patrons eat bananas out of the vaginas of the performers.

Lizzo has denied these claims through her legal team. Her attorneys say they remain “confident she will prevail in the case.”

Lizzo has previously said the lawsuit caught her off guard. In a 2024 interview with Keke Palmer, Lizzo said that she was “blindsided” by the lawsuit.

For now, the case continues, but this ruling gives Lizzo a clear win in a legal battle that is far from finished.