CNN –
Paula Abdul, a Grammy-winning entertainer and former judge on “American Idol” and “So You Think You Can Dance,” is suing those programs' executive producer Nigel Lythgoe, accusing him of sexual assault and harassment as well as gender-based violence and negligence, says it in a lawsuit filed Friday.
The lawsuit, filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court and obtained by CNN on Saturday, details two separate incidents Abdul is alleged to have committed in the early 2000s and 2015, respectively.
According to the complaint, Abdul alleges that “Lythgoe pushed Abdul against the wall” of an elevator and then groped and kissed her while the couple was on their way to regional auditions for “American Idol” in the first incident.
“Abdul attempted to push Lythgoe away from her and let him know that his behavior was unacceptable,” the complaint states.
In the second incident, Abdul claims Lythgoe “forced himself on Abdul while she was sitting on his couch and attempted to kiss her” when the entertainer was at Lythgoe's home for a business lunch in 2015.
She again rejected his attempts, stating that she was “not interested in his advances” because she believed the meeting at his house was purely professional, the complaint says.
Abdul did not report either incident at the time because she feared professional retaliation, according to her complaint. She also claims she witnessed Lythgoe attack her assistant in a separate incident in 2015.
Abdul is suing Lythgoe and names 19 Entertainment Inc., FremantleMedia North America Inc., American Idol Productions Inc. and Dance Nation Productions Inc. as co-defendants. He accuses them of gender-based violence, sexual harassment and negligence and of “ratifying and/or approving” Lythgoe’s sexual assault and attack on Abdul by failing to supervise Lythgoe. She is demanding unspecified damages.
CNN has reached out to Lythgoe and the companies named in the complaint for comment.
The complaint also states that while working on “American Idol,” Abdul was discriminated against “compared to one of the show's male judges and hosts” and that she was “the target of constant taunts, bullying, humiliation and harassment.”
As a result of the alleged incidents, Abdul said she has since suffered “severe emotional distress, mental anguish, anxiety, fear, humiliation, embarrassment and other physical and emotional injuries and harms (economic and non-economic).” The injuries sustained by Abdul were “significant, persistent and permanent,” her statement of claim states.
“It was clearly a difficult decision, but Ms. Abdul knows that she stands both in the shoes and on the shoulders of many other similarly situated survivors, and she is committed to ensuring that justice is done,” said Abdul’s attorney, Douglas L .Johnson said in a statement on Saturday.
Abdul's lawsuit was filed under California's Sexual Abuse and Cover Up Accountability Act, which allows claims for “damages resulting from a sexual assault” that occurred outside the statute of limitations for a specified period of time.