In the shocking complaint, the comedians are being accused of grooming a 14-year-old girl and her 7-year-old brother and tricking them to film explicit skits.
- Sep 2, 2022
AceShowbiz - Tiffany Haddish and Aries Spears have been hit with a bombshell child grooming lawsuit. Reacting to the wild claims, the comedians' legal teams insisted that they are innocent and that they wouldn't be "shaken down."
The comedians have been accused of grooming a 14-year-old girl and her 7-year-old brother and coercing them to film explicit skits, per TMZ. They're now being sued by the siblings, identified as Jane Doe, now 22, and John Doe, now 14, in the legal docs. Both siblings claimed they have developed debilitating social disorders.
In response to the accusations, Aries' attorney, Debra Opri, said "He isn't going to fall for any shakedown." Tiffany's lawyer, Andrew Brettler, echoed a similar statement as saying, "Plaintiff's mother, Trizah Morris, has been trying to assert these bogus claims against Ms. Haddish for several years. Every attorney who has initially taken on her case, and there were several, ultimately dropped the matter once it became clear that the claims were meritless and Ms. Haddish would not be shaken down. Now, Ms. Morris has her adult daughter representing herself in this lawsuit. The two of them will together face the consequences of pursuing this frivolous action."
In the lawsuit, the siblings' mother Trizah alleged that she and Tiffany met through comedy and developed a close relationship over their respective divorces. "We were both going through a divorce," the mother told The Daily Beast. "Messy, messy, messy, messy divorces… We just got really, really super, super close."
It's also stated in the paperwork that Tiffany called the family for "every birthday and every Christmas." In 2013, the same year the comedienne divorced William Stewart after five years of marriage, the "Girls Trip" actress appeared as a guest speaker at a summer camp attended by 14-year-old Jane.
Around that time, Tiffany allegedly told Jane that she'd discovered "a perfect role" for the teen in her very own commercial. According to the suit, Jane nor her mother were aware of shoot details, while Tiffany and Aries were said to know the plot.
The shoot allegedly involved Tiffany teaching Jane how to mimic fellatio for a skit about kids arguing over a sub sandwich. "I tried to mimic what they wanted me to mimic, but it still came out just super uncomfortable," Jane said. "I knew when I left the booth that I didn't complete what they wanted me to do."
Tiffany allegedly paid Jane $100 before sending her home. Jane said she didn't initially tell her mother about the alleged incident. "I didn't confide to nobody else about how weird I felt at that moment," she explained.
According to the lawsuit, Tiffany reached out to the siblings' mother a year later to let her know that she was interested in the younger brother, John, for a Nickelodeon sizzle reel. The suit added that John, who was 7 years old at the time, was molested by both Tiffany and Aries while filming what became a disturbing video published via Funny or Die and more online platforms, titled "Through a Pedophile's Eyes".
Responding to the allegations, Funny or Die released a statement that read, "Funny or Die found this video absolutely disgusting and would never produce such content." It continued, "We were not involved with the conceptualization, development, funding, or production of this video. It was uploaded to the site as user-generated content and was removed in 2018 immediately after becoming aware of its existence."
