Nigel Lythgoe, the director and producer accused of sexual assault by Paula Abdul, joked in a 2015 interview that he “wanted to be the next person to abuse her.”
The two spoke with the Daily Beast in 2015 ahead of the 12th season premiere of “So You Think You Can Dance,” where Lythgoe served as an executive producer and judge, along with Abdul for two seasons.
Discussing the singer’s abusive relationship with Simon Cowell during her “American Idol” days, Lythgoe told the outlet how Cowell had “abused and mistreated” her.
Abdul co-hosted with Cowell from 2002 to 2009 and the two often clashed on camera. Lythgoe is also a producer of “Idol.”
In a 2015 interview with The Daily Beast, Nigel Lythgoe talked about hiring Abdul for “So You Think You Can Dance.” Reuters
“We’ve known each other for a long time,” Lythgoe said at the time. “Honestly, I was a fan of Paula in the UK before I came here to America. To be able to work with her on ‘Idol’ for so many years and see how she was mistreated by Simon…”
Abdul interrupted and moaned, “Oh, please,” continuing what the writer described as “playful banter.”
“So abused and mistreated,” Lythgoe continued. “I want to be the next person to abuse him.”
He hired Abdul to co-host a competitive dance show in 2015 and 2016.
Paula Abdul filed a lawsuit against producer Nigel Lythgoe for sexual assault several times after participating in “American Idol” in the early 2000s. Getty Images
In the years before the Daily Beast hearing, Lythgoe twice assaulted Abdul, he now alleges in a lawsuit filed against him Friday in Los Angeles Superior Court.
Lythgoe allegedly pushed Abdul against a wall in a hotel elevator, grabbed her privates and breasts and shoved his tongue down her throat during the incident during the early season of “American Idol,” she said in court documents.
Nigel Lythgoe is a producer for “American Idol” and “So You Think You Can Dance,” while Abdul is a judge on both shows. Getty Images
In 2014, he allegedly forced himself on her after dinner at her home, telling her they were going to be a “power couple,” Abdul said in a legal filing, where she also accused Lythgoe of groping her assistant in 2015.
“It was obviously a difficult decision to make, but Ms. Abdul knows that she is standing in both the shoes and on the shoulders of many other survivors in the same position, and she is determined to see that justice is done,” said Abdul’s lawyer, Douglas. Johnson, in a statement.
Lythgoe called the allegations false and “deeply offensive.”
“While Paula’s history of erratic behavior is well known, I cannot pretend to understand exactly why she would file a lawsuit that she must know is untrue,” he said in a statement. “But I can promise that I will fight this horrible slander with everything I have.”
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
