Tiffany Haddish and Aries Spears are being sued by a woman over sexual abuse claims.
A Jane Doe lawsuit filed on Tuesday (30 August) in Los Angeles Superior Court alleges the two comedians forced the plaintiff and her brother to perform sexually suggestive acts on camera for comedy sketches when the siblings were underage.
The woman, now 22, is accusing Haddish and Spears of gross negligence, sexual battery, emotional distress, sexual abuse of a minor and sexual harassment.
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Haddish is also facing accusations of constructive fraud, negligent supervision/failure to warn and breach of fiduciary duty.
The alleged incidents are said to have happened when the plaintiff was 14 and her brother, identified by the pseudonym John Doe, was just seven.
Jane is the guardian of her younger brother, who is now 14.
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UNILAD has approached representatives for both Haddish and Spears for comment.
Denying the allegations, Haddish's attorney Andrew Brettler told EW that the plaintiff's mother ‘has been trying to assert these bogus claims against Ms. Haddish for several years’.
Brettler added: “Every attorney who has initially taken on her case — and there were several — ultimately dropped the matter once it became clear that the claims were meritless and Ms. Haddish would not be shaken down.
“Now, [the plaintiff's mother] has her adult daughter representing herself in this lawsuit. The two of them will together face the consequences of pursuing this frivolous action."
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Debra Opri, Spears' attorney, said in a separate statement that her client won’t ‘fall for any shakedown’.
In their lawsuit, the complaint describes one alleged incident that took place when she was filming a sketch in 2013. Another alleged incident is detailed involving John and said to have happened a year later, during filming in the summer of 2014.
The siblings met Haddish when they were young. Their mother allegedly befriended the star ‘through the comedy circuit’ and Jane and John would call Haddish ‘Auntie Tiff’.
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In return, Haddish is said to have referred to Jane and John and her ‘niece and nephew’.
A representative for Funny or Die, the website that published one of the videos at the centre of the lawsuit, told the Daily Beast in a statement: "Funny Or Die found this video absolutely disgusting and would never produce such content.
“We were not involved with the conceptualisation, development, funding, or production of this video. It was uploaded to the site as user-generated content and was removed in 2018 immediately after becoming aware of its existence."
If you’ve been affected by any of these issues and want to speak to someone in confidence regarding the welfare of a child, contact the NSPCC on 0808 800 5000, 8am–10pm Monday to Friday, 9am–6pm weekends. If you are a child seeking advice and support, call Childline for free on 0800 1111
Topics: World News, Celebrity, Film and TV
Aisha Nozari