Outside looking in. But I stayed true to myself because
I wanted to make the world a better place. If I'm the
people's champ, I don't need a trophy for championing
people. I've used my platform to amplify marginalize
voices. Let's continue to reach out, hold each other
down and lift each other up. God bless you. Thank you
so much. Well, Lizzo, who has built her career on
empowering and supporting women is now facing scathing
allegations in a new lawsuit for backup dancers, Ari
Davis, Crystal Williams and Noel Rodriguez filed a
lawsuit on Tuesday saying they suffered from sexual and
religious harassment, weight sh and a hostile work
in on Lia's special tour. The dancers are also suing
her production company, Big Girl Touring and the
captain of her dance team. Sherlene Quigley joining
Now with her personal experience is Arianna Davis, on
of the dancers who was part of this lawsuit and Ron.
Ron ran the attorney representing all three plane,
Arianna. Um Thank you for joining us and Ron you as
well. Ariana. I'll start with you um to the public um
because we do not see everything that goes on behind
the scenes Lizzo is someone as uh someone who
encourages women, uh stands for body positivity, even
her documentary, she has depicted uplifting her dancers.
But what happened behind closed doors Um I can just say
that the easiest way because for me being in the
situation and the reason why I feel like it took so
long to speak up um until I was out of it was because
it's hard to believe, it's hard to believe that Lizzo
would do anything other than something absolutely
amazing for, you know, humankin Um, but I think about
it like this, you know, some therapists have Chil
and, um, those therapists are so good at helping other
people that aren't their family that, you know, go
through all these things from a, as a third party
looking in. But when it comes to their own child, if
their child comes to them and they say mom, I'm
depressed, they don't really know how to, like, handle
that because it's their own child, you know. So I think
that's a good analogy to kind of help people wrap their
mind around the fact that yes, she's an advocate for so
many people, but that doesn't necessarily mean she
advocates for the people that are closest to her. Um, I
do, I think she's a terrible person. No. And I don'
want people to, to think that this is some sort of like,
ploy to, like, run a smear campaign or anything like
that. I just think that good people do bad things
sometimes and um it was not a good work environment,
there was a lot of emotional abuse happening and u
mean, I guess we can get in more into that later. But
yeah, how have your experiences with Lizzo impacted
your well being because I imagine with something like
this um like you said, it is so shocking. Um initially
it's probably hard for you to believe as well as it's
happening to you as you're experiencing it. Yeah. Y
know what I was just talking to um someone the other
day, I was like, you know, I met some of the most
genuine amazing people in this camp. And so by default,
I thought, oh for sure, the person that brought me to
this camp, that is the reason why I'm in this camp has
to be genuine as well has to be nice. Has to be amazing,
has to be all these things because I'm meeting all
these people that she brought me to that are these
things. Um I don't know if it's fame or money or power
that has, you know, kind of allowed her to lose herself
in a little, in a little bit of ways. Um But I've never
felt more conscious about mysel or my body more in my
life than on this job. And um I've never lost myself
the way that I've lost myself on this job. Well, Ron,
um over to you. Now, why did you agree to take up this
case You know, at first, like everyone else react
yesterday, it was hard to kind of put your mind around
that, that Lizza would, would treat or act in a certain
way. Um But like any good plain its attorney, I
listened and I listened and I listened and it turned
out that these women are so brave to move forward. It
is not uncommon in the, in the uh enter enter
entertainment industry for ther to be this type of
abuse to actors, to dancers uh to people on the, on the
low rung. Um So it was just a matter of the brand of
Lizzo but listening to these ladies, especially
yesterday, listening to Ariana now it's, it, it
convinced me and it's an honor to, to represent them
and we've had people call us since uh the news hit
yesterday, corroborating things I also believe the
creative director uh corroborat some of the things uh
who I believe is uh related to her. We see these
harassment allegations against here on the screen.
So you can kind of read along as we're speaking. B
Ron, I want to ask you um some of the damages describe
in the lawsuit are financial, but a majority of them
are emotional. So what is your philosophy with this
case How, what is the end goal here at Well, at the end
goal is to get what's just for my clients, of course.
But, but as far as the damages are concerned, how,
it's something we, we present as attorneys at the end
of the day, we put people in the shoes of our clients,
uh, at the, at first blush. Oh, you know how glamoro
could it be to be, you know, with Lizzo in Amsterd
Well, if you're actually in that position and you're at
the age of these ladies and you don't want to
participate these things, the power and balance is what
makes this really uh so horrendous, you can't really
say no when a global icon is asking you to do these
things, chanting these things, encouraging others to
make you do these things. It's really like a hazing
ritual and instead of hazing in the normal sense that
we know in college, it's really you should particip
and look at these sexual acts and you just shouldn't be
doing that as an employer. All right. Plaintiff'
attorney, Ron Smb and Lizzo, former dancer Ariana Dav
Thank you both for sharing your story with us this
morning. I really appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you.
And Scripps News did reach out to Lizzo and her team
for a response to these allegations, but they did not
respond.