Paula Abdul and former American Idol producer Nigel Lythgoe have reached a private settlement a year after her first sexual assault lawsuit, according to court documents obtained by ROLLING STONE.
Financial details of the settlement were not disclosed in court documents. In a statement to ROLLING STONE, Abdul said she was “grateful that this chapter has been successfully closed and I can now put it behind me.”
“This has been a long and hard personal battle,” Abdul said. “I hope my experience can serve as an inspiration to other women struggling with similar issues to overcome their own challenges with dignity and respect so that they too can start a new chapter in their lives.”
Lythgoe: “I know the truth”
As Lythgoe said in a statement: “We live in a troubling time where a person is automatically presumed guilty until proven innocent, a process that can take years,” he said. “That’s why, like Paula, I’m happy that I can put this behind me. I know the truth and that gives me great comfort.”
Abdul sued Lythgoe in late 2023, claiming Lythgoe assaulted her while filming one of the first seasons of “American Idol” in the early 2000s, then again in 2014 when she was a judge on “So You Think You Can Dance.” . She also sued the production companies of “American Idol” and “So You Think You Can Dance,” but settled with them in April. And Abdul claimed that in the first incident, Lythgoe attacked her in a hotel elevator and “pushed Abdul against the wall, then groped her genitals and breasts and began shoving his tongue down her throat.”
The second attack, she claimed, occurred at his home. She claimed that she attended the dinner believing it was a “business invitation.” “Lythgoe forced himself on top of Abdul while she sat on his couch and attempted to kiss her while proclaiming that the two would make an excellent ‘power couple,'” the lawsuit says. Lythgoe vehemently denied the allegations and described them as a “smear campaign”.
“Allegations are false”
“To say that I am shocked and saddened by the allegations Paula Abdul has made against me is a vast understatement,” he said in the statement at the time. “For more than two decades, Paula and I have been close as dear – and entirely platonic – friends and colleagues. “Yesterday, however, I learned of these claims out of the blue in the press, and I want to make one thing clear: they are not only false, but they are deeply offensive to me and everything I stand for.”
Four more Jane Does
Since Abdul Lythgoe first sued, four other women have come forward anonymously as Jane Does with allegations of sexual abuse. Two women who appeared on the TV show “All American Girl” sued Lythgoe in January, a third in February, alleging he sexually assaulted her in a car in 2016, while a fourth in March claimed he sexually assaulted her in his in 2018 house sexually abused.
Lythgoe was acquitted in July of a lawsuit filed by contestants in the All American Girl competition. “Today was a good day,” he said in a statement at the time. “We have always said these allegations are without merit and now the court has agreed. I hope and expect that this will be the first of many similar victories as I continue to fight to clear my name.”