Tiffany Haddish Responds to Lawsuit Accusing Her and Aries Spears of Sexual Misconduct: ‘I Deeply Regret Having Agreed to Act In It’
Tiffany Haddish Responds to Lawsuit Accusing Her and Aries Spears of Sexual Misconduct: ‘I Deeply Regret Having Agreed to Act In It’
Last week, The Last O.G.‘s Tiffany Haddish and comedian Aries Spears were sued after a lawsuit accused the duo of sexual abuse by an underaged brother and sister. On Sunday, Haddish publicly commented through her Instagram account regarding the alleged incident. She expresses regret for participating in it although she states she can’t speak on the incident due to a pending lawsuit against her.
“I know people have a bunch of questions. I get it. I’m right there with you. Unfortunately, because there is an ongoing legal case, there’s very little that I can say right now. But, clearly, while the sketch was intended to be comedic, it wasn’t funny at all — and I deeply regret having agreed to act in it. I really look forward to being able to share a lot more about this situation as soon as I can.”
Last week, The Daily Beast reported that the two underaged children were familiar with Haddish growing up. The plaintiffs, who filed the lawsuit using the pseudonyms Jane and John Doe, are now respectively 22 and 15. They allege that Haddish and Spears, in two separate incidents, persuaded the two siblings to engage in sexually suggestive acts on camera.
The children were 14 and 7 when the purported scenes took place.
They also state in the lawsuit that Haddish was close to them as they referred to her as “Auntie Tiff.” She acknowledged them as her “niece” and “nephew.” The plaintiffs’ mother told The Daily Beast that she initially met Haddish through comedy and they connected because both were going through “messy divorces.” The two became friends as Haddish reportedly contacted the family for birthdays and every year at Christmas.
In 2013, the comedic pair recruited Jane for a videotaped scene. Jane was instructed to view a video that showed some college students arguing over a subway sandwich. In the video clip, the students started to eat the sandwiches in a manner that was sexually suggestive. They were “moaning and making sexual noises as they both ate the sandwich in a manner that simulated the act of fellatio,” the lawsuit stated.
At that point in time, Spears advised Jane “to mimic what she had seen on the screen, including the noises precisely like what she heard throughout the video.”
The suit also states that “Haddish verbally explained what was expected of Plaintiff Jane Doe and then showed Plaintiff Jane Doe how to give fellatio, including movements, noises, moaning, and groaning.”
Then in 2014, Haddish once again allegedly went back to Jane’s mother with another offer, but this time, it involved Jane’s younger brother, John. The Girls Trip star allegedly informed the family that this video with John would be for a “sizzle reel” for Nickelodeon. Instead, John appeared in a video that was posted on Funny or Die as well as other various online platforms, titled “The Mind of a Pedophile.”
In the lawsuit filed, both Haddish and Spears have been accused of intentional infliction of emotional distress, gross negligence, sexual battery, sexual harassment, and sexual abuse of a minor. In addition to those claims, Haddish is also accused of negligent supervision/failure to warn, breach of fiduciary duty, and constructive fraud. The two children are seeking general and special damages, as well as “any appropriate statutory damages.”
Tiffany Haddish Responds to Lawsuit Accusing Her and Aries Spears of Sexual Misconduct: ‘I Deeply Regret Having Agreed to Act In It’
