Tiffany Haddish Responds To Child Sexual Abuse Allegations, Says Sketches Weren’t ‘Funny At All’
Tiffany Haddish has responded to the sexual abuse lawsuit filed against her and Aries Spears.
The two comedians were accused of of child sexual abuse in a lawsuit filed last week. According to Variety, the suit, filed by two anonymous plaintiffs, stated that Haddish and Spears exploited them during comedy sketches that were filmed in 2013 and 2014 for the Funny or Die platform on YouTube.
“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,” Haddish wrote in a statement posted to her Instagram account, before speaking on her involvement in the sketch titled “The Mind of a Pedophile.”
“But clearly, while this sketch was intended to be comedic, it wasn’t funny at all – and I deeply regret having agreed to act in it,” she continued. “I really look forward to being able to share a lot more about this situation as soon as I can.”
Jane Doe was 14 years old when the alleged video shoot took place, and John was 7, per a report by the Daily Beast. A representative for Funny or Die told the publication that they “found this video absolutely disgusting and would never produce such content. We were not involved with the conceptualization, 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.”
The suit states that both Haddish and Spears are being sued for intentional infliction of emotional distress, sexual battery, gross negligence, sexual harassment and sexual abuse of a minor, with Haddish also being accused of negligence supervision/failure to warn, breach of fiduciary duty and constructive fraud.
Haddish’s lawyer responded to the lawsuit, saying that the Jane and John Doe’s mother “has been trying to assert these bogus claims against Ms. Haddish for several years.”
“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,” attorney Andrew Brettler said. “Now, Ms. [redacted] has her adult daughter representing herself in this lawsuit. The two of them will together face the consequences of pursuing this frivolous action.”
