Accusers drop lawsuit against Tiffany Haddish and Aries Spears
A pair of siblings had accused the comedians of sexually abusing them as kids for the purposes of a comedy sketch
Aux News Tiffany Haddish
A surprising story has come to a surprisingly quick end: The anonymous siblings who accused comedians Tiffany Haddish and Aries Spears of “intentional infliction of emotional distress, gross negligence, sexual battery, sexual harassment, and sexual abuse of a minor” in a lawsuit earlier this month over a comedy sketch with Spears and Haddish that the siblings filmed when they were children have dropped their complaint and filed for a dismissal with prejudice—meaning that the matter is fully resolved and cannot be refiled.
On top of that, one of the siblings (identified only as Jane Doe) released the following statement (via Deadline): “My family and i have known Tiffany Haddish for many years—and we now know that she would never harm me or my brother or help anyone else do anything that could harm us. We wish Tiffany the best and are glad that we can all put this behind us.”
While that statement doesn’t mention Spears, his status as a co-defendant in this suit means that any claims against him have also been dropped. Spears posted about the suit getting dropped on his Instagram, but Haddish hasn’t offered any kind of public statement since distancing herself from the sketch in question shortly after the accusations came out. Filmed in 2014, the sketch was called “Through A Pedophile’s Eyes” and involved Spears playing a pedophile character opposite Jane Doe’s brother—who was 7 years old at the time and reportedly called his mother, crying, after filming was finished. (We went over specific descriptions of what was in the sketch in a previous report, if you really want to know.)
With Spears’ post being the only statement we have to go off of, it’s unclear if there was any kind of settlement or what else might have prompted this turn of events. Deadline says that last week there were “whispers of some sort of agreement,” but that’s all.
If you or someone you know is suffering from sexual abuse, contact the RAINN National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-4673.
22 Comments
Well, back to being America’s sweethearts, eh?
Aries Spears is America’s sweetheart?! Not even in 1998 I don’t think.
Indeed, that was half the intended joke.
More like sweetfarts…AMIRITE?
What’s Meg Ryan got to do with it?
What’s Meg Ryan but a second-hand emotion?
Well that was a sudden and jarring about-face. Wonder who got threatened here…
Wouldn’t be hard to scare the family off; Jane Doe was representing herself and the family pro se. She was able to grab headlines and stir up hugely damaging PR for Haddish and Spears, but if it went to trial she would have absolutely been eaten alive by their lawyers. The hope is that she made enough trouble to at least get a tidy payout, off the books.
Maybe it was a cash grab and they got the cash. Their emotional distress seems to have gone away pretty quick once settlement talks started.
Nothing dries your tears like hundred dollar bills.
Love your screen name huge UGK fan.
I feel like they reached a settlement and if so good for them but man that Deadline statement sounds like Haddish had a gun to Jane Doe’s head while she was making it.
jesus bro. not all black people own guns.
A settlement would have to be registered and documented with the court. This looks more like an under-the-table payoff. Which is arguably to the family’s benefit because they can avoid taxes and fees (so long as they’re careful and don’t flash it around), but moreso it works in the defendants’ interest because a legally recognized settlement will always look like an admission of guilt.
a legally recognized settlement will always look like an admission of guilt.
Not necesarily. Many lawsuits are obvious cash grabs, and in many cases, it’s just easier to pay them off & get them to go away.
Ah, the Michael Jackson Gambit.
we cant speak ill of the haddish apparently
Given how the case so easily fell apart, it’s clear the accusers backed out to save face.
And were slipped a few bucks.What I go back to is how anyone thought this sketch was a good idea in the first place. I could see a team of writers entertaining themselves in the writers’ room over the pure ickiness of the concept before rightly agreeing it was too much. But to actually film it, with prepubescent kids? Jesus.
Thank God we can all go back to finding Aries Spears hilarious and interesting and totally worthy of our attention.
I guess Tiffany dropped some of that Girlstrip money under the table to make this go away. Spears contributed $150 for good measure.