Kanye West Sued for Sexual Harassment Lawsuit from Former Assistant

Ye, formerly Kanye West, is facing a lawsuit from his former assistant over allegations of sexual harassment and wrongful termination.

In a complaint filed in Los Angeles court, Lauren Pisciotta claims that she faced a “systematic” onslaught of “unlawful harassment” during her year of working for the rapper, first as an executive assistant and later as chief of staff for his companies.

Pisciotta claims Ye frequently sent her sexually explicit texts, including photos and videos of him having intercourse with other women, and that he repeatedly propositioned her for it.

In one particularly graphic allegation, Pisciotta claims that Ye locked her in a room during a private jet flight and laid down in a bed in front of her and touched himself in front of her under the covers until he fell asleep. 

In a statement to Billboard on Tuesday, a legal rep for Ye denied the allegations and said the rapper would be bringing his own case against Pisciotta: “In response to these baseless allegations, Ye will be filing a lawsuit against Ms. Pisciotta, who actively pursued him sexually to coerce employment and other material benefits, then engaged in blackmail and extortion when her advances were rejected.”

According to the lawsuit, Ye hired Pisciotta in July 2021 after they met while she was working in connection with his fashion line. She says she agreed to work for him as a full time employee in return for a $1 million salary.

At the time she was hired, Pisciotta says she maintained a successful page on OnlyFans –  a platform that allows users to publish content behind a paywall. It's popular among adult-content creators. 

Pisciotta says the page was generating more than $1 million per year, and Ye did not have any issue or objection to it when she was hired.

However, a year later, she says Yes told her that he wanted her to be “God like” and asked her to delete the page in return for a promise of a $1 million payment. Though she agreed to do so, her lawyers claim she didn’t see any of that money: “Ye never paid plaintiff as promised.”

Pisciotta’s lawsuit came with pages of texts allegedly sent by Ye, many of them sexually graphic. 

In one, he allegedly sent a video of him having intercourse and then asked “What u think of this vid.” In another, he referenced an earlier outing at a bowling alley and imagining headline of Ye arrested for having intercourse on the bowling alley floor.

In another incident, the lawsuit says Ye told a male guest that he could have intercourse with Pisciotta in exchange for allowing Ye to have intercourse with another woman.

In October 2022, Pisciotta says she was terminated shortly after she had been promoted to chief of staff and offered a huge raise. Though she was allegedly offered a $3 million severance payment, she claims Ye and his companies later “reneged on their commitment to pay the severance.”

In technical terms, the lawsuit includes claims of breach of contract, wrongful termination, sexual harassment, retaliation, gender discrimination, fraud, and various other employment law violations.

In the response statement, Ye’s legal rep said that Pisciotta had been terminated “For being unqualified, demanding unreasonable sums of money” and for “Numerous documented incidents of her lascivious, unhinged conduct” during her employment: “It is evident that Ms. Pisciotta leveraged her association with Ye and his company, and her proximity to him, to seek material gains, clout, and employment through inappropriate means.”