Almost eight years earlier than Paula Abdul accused Nigel Lythgoe of sexual assault, he made a questionable joke about their relationship.
After Abdul, now 61, joined the So You Assume You Can Dance panel in 2015, she and Lythgoe, now 74, spoke to Us Weekly and different reporters about working collectively on the present.
“What chemistry? But really, we’ve known each other for so long now,” Lythgoe quipped to Us in January 2015. “I was always an admirer of Paula back in the U.K. before I came here, and to be able to work with her [as an executive producer] on Idol for all those years and see how she was mistreated by Simon [Cowell].”
Lythgoe labored behind the scenes on American Idol throughout its early seasons when Abdul served as a decide alongside Cowell and Randy Jackson. Abdul, who finally left the singing present in 2009, chimed in to jokingly declare that she had been “abused” by Cowell.
Lythgoe, for his half, corrected himself in the course of the press junket. “Abused and mistreated,” he added. “I wanted to be the next person to abuse her some more.”
The off-kilter remark resurfaced after Us confirmed on Saturday, December 30, that Abdul filed a lawsuit in opposition to Lythgoe, suing him for sexual assault/battery, sexual harassment, gender violence and negligence. She alleged that he sexually assaulted her twice, as soon as once they labored collectively on American Idol and a second time throughout their shared SYTYCD tenure round 2015.
Lythgoe vehemently denied Abdul’s allegations, calling them “deeply offensive” and “untrue.”
“To say that I am shocked and saddened by the allegations made against me by Paula Abdul is a wild understatement. For more than two decades, Paula and I have interacted as dear — and entirely platonic — friends and colleagues,” Lythgoe advised Us in an announcement. “Yesterday, however, out of the blue, I learned of these claims in the press and I want to be clear: not only are they false, they are deeply offensive to me and to everything I stand for.”
He added: “While Paula’s history of erratic behavior is well known, I can’t pretend to understand exactly why she would file a lawsuit that she must know is untrue. But I can promise that I will fight this appalling smear with everything I have.”
Abdul’s lawsuit was filed beneath California’s Sexual Abuse and Cowl-Up Accountability Act, which allowed victims a one-year window to file sexual abuse lawsuits that will in any other case be outdoors of the statute of limitations. The deadline expires on Sunday, December 31.
In case you or somebody you understand has been sexually assaulted, contact the Nationwide Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673).