Nigel Lythgoe Responds to Paula Abdul Accusations: ‘False’ & ‘Deeply Offensive’

UPDATED STORY (12/31/2023 9:44 am ET): Nigel Lythgoe has responded to Paula Abdul’s lawsuit, calling her allegations of sexual assault “false” and “deeply offensive.”

“To say that I am shocked and saddened by the allegations made against me by Paula Abdul is a wild understatement,” the So You Think You Can Dance judge and executive producer said in a statement to TMZ on Saturday, December 30.

“For more than two decades, Paula and I have interacted as dear — and entirely platonic — friends and colleagues,” Lythgoe added. “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 went on: “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.”

ORIGINAL STORY (12/30/2023 at 9:55 am ET):

Paula Abdul has filed a sexual assault and gender violence lawsuit against American Idol executive producer and So You Think You Can Dance judge Nigel Lythgoe, citing alleged assaults that occurred while she worked on both shows.

In the suit, filed in Los Angeles Superior Court on Friday, December 29, Abdul accuses Lythgoe of assaulting her in the early 2000s — “during one of American Idol’s initial seasons,” the document states — and then again in 2015, during their time together on SYTYCD, as Deadline reports.

In the alleged Idol-era assault, Abdul says Lythgoe “shoved [her] against the wall, then grabbed her genitals and breasts, and began shoving his tongue down her throat” in a hotel elevator, after which Abdul made it back to her room and contacted her reps, according to the lawsuit.

And in the alleged SYTYCD-era assault, the Grammy winner claims Lythgoe “forced himself on top of [her] while she was seated on his couch and attempted to kiss her while proclaiming that the two would make an excellent ‘power couple,’” at his Los Angeles home, after she responded to what she thought was a “professional invitation,” per the suit. Abdul then “pushed Lythgoe off of her, explaining that she was not interested in his advances and immediately left,” the suit adds.

The lawsuit also alleged that Abdul witnessed Lythgoe assaulting one of his assistants while filming SYTYCD in Las Vegas.

Phillip Faraone/Getty Images

Abdul’s suit comes with only days to spare before the December 31 deadline of the Sexual Abuse and Cover-Up Accountability Act, which opened the door to certain sexual abuse lawsuits that would have otherwise fallen outside the statute of limitations, according to Variety.

“Lythgoe knew and was aware that his treatment of Abdul was inappropriate and even criminal,” her lawsuit states, per Deadline. “Indeed at one point Lythgoe called Abdul and taunted her that they should celebrate because it had been ‘seven years and the statute of limitations had run.’ Lythgoe clearly knew that his assaults of Abdul were not just wrong but that he held the power to keep her silent.”

The suit went on: “For years, Abdul has remained silent about the sexual assaults and harassment she experienced on account of Lythgoe due to fear of speaking out against one of the most well-known producers of television competition shows who could easily break her career as a television personality and of being ostracized and blackballed by an industry that had a pattern of protecting powerful men and silencing survivors of sexual assault and harassment.”

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Now Abdul is suing Lythgoe for unspecified damages, with American Idol Productions, Dance Nation Productions, 19 Entertainment, and FremantleMedia North America also named as defendants, Deadline reports.

Lythgoe executive-produced Idol from 2002 to 2014 and SYTYCD from 2005 to 2014. He judged SYTYCD’s first 16 seasons and returned to the judging panel for the recently-ordered 18th season.

Abdul judged the first eight Idol seasons and the 12th and 13th SYTYCD seasons. She recently guest-judged Dancing With the Stars and competed on Celebrity Wheel of Fortune.