Paula Abdul and Nigel Lythgoe Settle Sexual Assault Lawsuit 1 Year After She Sued Him: A ‘Hard-Fought Personal Battle’

Almost a year after Paula Abdul hit American Idol EP and So You Think You Can Dance judge Nigel Lythgoe with a sexual assault and gender violence lawsuit, the former collaborators have settled.

According to court documents obtained by PEOPLE, the pair settled the case, in which Abdul accused the producer of sexual assault, in an “unconditional” manner on Monday, Dec. 9.

The request was initially filed on Nov. 12, and a hearing on motion to strike portions of Lythgoe’s answer to the amended complaint was set for Jan. 21, 2025 with a trial date for August 2025, though both dates are expected to be vacated once the court orders the dismissal.

Abdul, 62, spoke out in an exclusive statement to PEOPLE on Friday, Dec. 13, saying she was glad to finally move forward and hopes her story will inspire other women going through similar challenges.

“I am grateful that this chapter has successfully come to a close and is now something I can now put behind me,” she said. “This has been a long and hard-fought personal battle. I hope my experience can serve to inspire other women, facing similar struggles, to overcome their own challenges with dignity and respect, so that they too can turn the page and begin a new chapter of their lives.”

PEOPLE has reached out to Lythgoe’s attorneys for comment.

The settlement comes one year after Abdul sued Lythgoe, who she worked with on American Idol and So You Think You Can Dance, claiming he sexually assaulted her on two occasions — once during the early seasons of Idol and once during her tenure on SYTYCD. She also accused him of sexually assaulting her assistant.

In October 2024, Abdul submitted her first amended complaint, which included new details of the incidents and alleged he assaulted her a third time during the same incident that involved her assistant.

Lythgoe submitted a response to the filing that month, calling Abdul’s claims “vague both as to the timing of the alleged assault and as to the details of the supposed incident.” He wrote that they could not “form the basis of any of her claims against Lythgoe.”

He argued that she “suddenly ‘remembered’ additional details,” which “stretches credulity that Abdul would supposedly remember witnessing her assistant allegedly being assaulted by Lythgoe in April 2015 and yet apparently ‘forget,’ until the filing of her FAC, that she also allegedly was assaulted at that same time — let alone be able to suddenly remember specific details of the alleged incident, as her FAC now alleges,” per the documents.

In the filing, Lythgoe included several text exchanges between him and Abdul, in which she expressed love for him and their friendship.

“It is unthinkable that Abdul would even tolerate Lythgoe’s physical proximity, let alone send him adoring messages and sexually provocative jokes, if her allegations were true – which, clearly, they are not,” his filing alleged.

Abdul’s lawyer responded to Lythgoe’s claims in a statement to PEOPLE at the time, saying: “Mr. Lythgoe’s use of the pleadings in this lawsuit to cast aspersions on Ms. Abdul is not just a futile effort to besmirch Ms. Abdul’s strong reputation but is wholly improper, and Ms. Abdul will be moving to strike Mr. Lythgoe’s filing from the record.”

via: People

The post Paula Abdul and Nigel Lythgoe Settle Sexual Assault Lawsuit 1 Year After She Sued Him: A ‘Hard-Fought Personal Battle’ appeared first on LOVEBSCOTT.