three former – As Lizzo’s latest album struggles to find its audience, the women who sued her over workplace abuse say they’re still focused on their case—not her career. Their lawsuit, filed in 2023 and described by Lizzo’s attorney as without basis, has faced key legal fig
The first time the lawsuit reached the public, it landed like a fracture: three former Lizzo dancers accused the pop star of sexual harassment, body shaming, and running a hostile workplace. Lizzo denied the allegations, and her attorney said the claims were refuted by 18 witnesses.
But now the story is colliding with another moment—one playing out on streaming charts, on social media feeds, and in the quiet space between what fans think Lizzo stands for and what the dancers say happened behind closed doors.
Since releasing her fifth album in early June. Lizzo has been on a commercial slide that many people can’t stop talking about. The album—provocatively titled “Bitch”—reportedly streamed under a million times on Spotify within the first 24 hours of its release. sold fewer than 3. 000 copies in its first week. and failed to crack the Billboard 200 in the first two weeks. according to Rolling Stone.
On social media, the 38-year-old pop star has offered her own theory for why people may have missed the drop. In a TikTok posted on May 12. she said. “The algorithm-based way that social media functions now is destroying the music industry. ” adding that if algorithms “super serving you things out of order of when they’re happening. then the general public has no idea when music is actually coming out.”.
For the plaintiffs, though, the question isn’t whether Lizzo’s music is breaking through. They say their lawsuit wasn’t built to take her down.
“It was never our intention to take down a woman of color,” said Noelle Rodriguez, one of three dancers who filed suit against Lizzo in 2023. “It was never an intention to take down a plus size woman of color specifically.”
Rodriguez and her co-claimants—Arianna Davis and Crystal Williams—allege sexual harassment. body shaming. and a hostile workplace tied to Lizzo. her production company Big Grrrl Big Touring. Inc. (BGBT). and a person described as “dance cast captain.” The dancers have not spoken broadly about their suit beyond interviews when it was initially filed in August 2023. but they came together recently for an exclusive conversation.
They describe mixed emotions as the case drags on. They say they’ve been disappointed and traumatized by what they allege happened after they were hired for a job they felt carried meaning—especially as women with bigger bodies. At the same time, they say they’re determined to see the case through.
Their insistence is consistent: they weren’t trying to smear Lizzo, and they weren’t trying to make her career derail.
Rodriguez said. “I don’t really think it’s our place to discuss or even have an opinion on how her career is going at this point. when that wasn’t even our reason for filing in the first place.” She added: “It was never a smear campaign. It was never to take somebody down. I think if anything. in retrospect. I’ve actually had some sadness in the fact that it has impacted her career.”.
Lizzo’s position is the opposite. Her attorney. Melissa Glass. said in a statement that the claims “have no basis in reality. ” adding. “Not a single witness has come forward to support their allegations.” Glass said their claims were “refuted by 18 witnesses. including most of the other dancers on ‘The Special Tour.’” She also said the legal team is “confident that Lizzo will prevail in the case.”.
Other dancers have sided with Lizzo, too. Chawnta’ Van—who first danced with Lizzo in 2019 and worked with the three women who filed the lawsuit—said she felt “blindsided” and “heartbroken” by the allegations. Van said everyone on the tour seemed “all in this together. ” and that after the suit was filed. plans for all future performances with Lizzo ground to a halt.
“As a dancer, we’re the lowest paid. We work gig by gig, literally,” Van said. “So when all this stuff came out and everything got canceled, it was really hard.”
The suit. filed in August 2023 and fought in court over the last three years. is now in a waiting phase that feels both procedural and personal at the same time. Ron Zambrano. a lawyer for the three women. said in an interview that both sides have been trading briefs and appeals. He said that last year. a judge threw out accusations of body shaming after a motion from Lizzo’s team argued that events like the nude show outings were protected free speech as part of the creative process.
Zambrano said the plaintiffs are currently waiting for a date from the California Court of Appeal to hear oral arguments.
In earlier public remarks, Lizzo also pointed back to the legal fight. Speaking to the “Today” show. she said she declined to settle the suit because “I’m a woman who is not afraid of the truth coming out. so I’m continuing to fight.” Shortly after the suit was filed. Lizzo posted a statement on social media calling the allegations “false” and “as unbelievable as they sound.” In that statement. she wrote. “I know what it feels like to be body shamed on a daily basis and would absolutely never criticize or terminate an employee because of their weight.”.
Before the latest album became part of the conversation. Lizzo’s public image had already been shaped by years of scrutiny and backlash. When she burst on the scene in 2019, she said it didn’t matter what happened on the internet. At the time. she said: “It doesn’t really matter what goes on on the internet. nothing really breaks my joy.” She also described herself as “a really solid. grounded person. ” adding that she knows she’s “shocking” because “you’ve never seen — in a long time — a body like mine doing whatever it wants to do and dressing the way that it dresses and moving the way that it moves.”.
The dancers say their allegations sit in tension with Lizzo’s messaging. Crystal Williams said in an interview. “I feel like her whole brand. aside from body positivity. was positivity in general — uplifting women. especially uplifting women of color and just. you know. being kind to one another. being kind to yourself.” She added that when “doors were closed. ” the dancers say things looked “the entire opposite whenever doors were closed. whenever we were in private meetings.”.
Their testimony is not just about conduct. It is also about what they believed they were joining.
Davis said dancing for Lizzo was her “dream job”—her “first professional dance job out the gate.” “I was like, this is amazing,” Davis said. “And then to have the actions play out the way they did was really devastating.”
Like Crystal Williams, Davis had been a contestant on Lizzo’s Amazon reality show “Watch Out for the Big Grrrls,” which centered on the star finding plus-sized dancers for her tour. Rodriguez, who is more established as a dancer, appeared in the 2021 music video for Lizzo’s single “Rumors.”
For them, the period after the allegations became public also carried professional costs. They say the experience impacted their careers, and they worry about reputations. Rodriguez said she’s considering going back to school and pursuing law because of the experience. Crystal Williams said they’re eager for the facts to be heard.
Williams said, “We want chance and an opportunity for her to be held accountable. We want the facts to come out, we want evidence to come out.” She continued: “We want to be able to address the truth just as much as she does. So we’re ready to see it through.”
As Lizzo’s music cycle and public identity continue shifting, other debates have surged around her body transformation. In 2024. Lizzo said in a social media video that she was no longer vegan and that she discovered adding things like egg white cups and grilled chicken helped her feel better and achieve her weight loss goals. She also recorded a version of the “Baby Back Ribs” jingle for Chili’s. appearing in an ad playing a rib-shaped flute.
In 2025. Lizzo wrote in a Substack essay that she began losing weight in 2023 after she became the “subject of a vicious scandal” that left her feeling depressed. She wrote that she started with Pilates as “a way to process my pain through my body.” She also wrote that she was sick of her identity being “overshadowed by my fatness. ” and that people “could not see my talent as a musician because they were too busy accusing me of making ‘being fat’ my whole personality.” In the same essay. she wrote that her story “isn’t unique” and that women in bigger bodies—“especially black women in bigger bodies”—have had “this working against them since forever.”.
More recently. Lizzo took exception to celebs she felt had gotten too thin during a podcast appearance on “In Your Dreams With Owen Thiele.” She said. “I don’t have criticism for the artists or these people who are losing all this weight as much as I have criticism for the system convincing them that their bodies aren’t good enough.”.
Still, to the women suing her, the defiance—along with the visible transformation—doesn’t answer what they say they lived through.
Williams said, “It wasn’t the weight loss that’s kind of made her abandon her fans. She kind of abandoned them from the beginning.” She added: “You are starting to see it a little bit more. but this is who she’s been since day one. sadly. So I don’t think this is something new. This is her genuine character at the core and at the heart.”.
Others in the conversation see the shift differently. Tigress Osborn. executive director of the National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance (NAAFA). said: “What’s complicated about Lizzo is Lizzo did make her body size part of her brand.” Osborn said there was also “the fact that she’s a Black woman. ” describing what Lizzo received as “the magical Black friend dynamic. ” a “Hollywood trope about like the magical Black friend who’s going make your life bigger by inspiring you and helping you.”.
Osborn argued that Lizzo now isn’t as “deeply relatable” to the plus-sized community because her body transformation changed what fans connect to. She said: “If you want your fans to relate to you as a person. then you have to be a person. not a brand. ” adding: “If you want your fans to relate to you as a brand. then brand loyalty ends when the brand changes.”.
Keyboard player Lynette Williams. who said she’s been working with Lizzo since 2020. insisted the weight loss happened because Lizzo “just wants to be healthier.” Lynette Williams added: “It’s not about trying to conform to what society thinks.” She also said the lawsuit played a larger factor in the low sales for Lizzo’s latest effort. On the music itself, Lynette Williams said, “I think it’s fire.”.
For the plaintiffs, the most consistent through-line is what they refuse to accept: the idea that their claims are merely an episode in a pop star’s rise and fall.
Rodriguez, Williams, and Davis say they have not chosen to listen to Lizzo’s music. They describe their focus as evidence, testimony, and accountability—grounded in a case still moving through the courts and now approaching the next stage of appellate procedure in California.
While fans watch “Bitch” play out in streams and sales, the dancers say their fight is not for attention. It’s for a reckoning they believe was owed from the start—and that, three years after a lawsuit filed in August 2023, still hasn’t come.
Lizzo Bitch album lawsuit sexual harassment body shaming hostile workplace Big Grrrl Big Touring Big Grrrl Big Touring Inc dance cast captain Noelle Rodriguez Arianna Davis Crystal Williams Melissa Glass Ron Zambrano California Court of Appeal sports tour allegations TikTok May 12 algorithm Billboard 200 Spotify streams