Megan Thee Stallion’s team is responding to a lawsuit against her that made news on Wednesday.
Amid several incorrect reports swarming across the internet about the matter, she now has to defend herself against a former employee who is suing her over unpaid wages and alleges a combative work environment.
The Houston native’s former photographer Emilio Garcia joined her team in 2018. He was terminated last June after working with her for nearly five years. On April 23, he filed a lawsuit against Megan, alleging she put him in an inappropriate position that ultimately tarnished their work relationship. Garcia’s suit claimed he was left emotionally and mentally traumatized after he allegedly witnessed the 29-year-old have sexual relations with an anonymous woman during a tour stop in Ibiza, Spain, according to NBC News.
The filing also stated that Garcia alleges he was told, “Don’t ever discuss what you saw” by his boss the next day. He also claims that while in Ibiza, Megan called him a “fat b**ch” and told him to “spit your food out” and “you don’t need to be eating.”
Megan’s lawyer Alex Spiro has released a statement dismissing Garcia’s accusations.
“This is an employment claim for money — with no sexual harassment claim filed and with salacious accusations to embarrass her. We will deal with this in court,” Spiro told Page Six.
According to court documents, when Megan and Garcia returned to the U.S., he was notified he would be paid per diem moving forward instead of the monthly retainer he was previously getting, which meant less compensation. Later, Roc Nation (Megan’s management team at the time) informed him that he wasn’t employed by her anymore.
“Megan just needs to pay our client what he’s due, own up to her behavior and quit this sort of sexual harassment and fat shaming conduct,” Ron Zambrano, one of Garcia’s lawyers, shared with NBC News. “Emilio should never have been put in a position of having to be in the vehicle with her while she had sex with another woman. ‘Inappropriate’ is putting it lightly. Exposing this behavior to employees is definitely illegal.”
Per Page Six, Garcia also believes his termination was “direct retaliation for his complaints about the ongoing illegal behavior and failure to pay him properly.”
Online reports have incorrectly referred to the basis of this lawsuit being sexual abuse or harassment, which is not the case. Meghann Cuniff, who gained fame from her reporting of the Tory Lanez court case, explained more about the legal matter her X account.
Here's the complaint against Roc Nation and Megan Thee Stallion, which as I explained in my YouTube live is an employment lawsuit over Garcia being classified as an independent contractor, NOT a sexual harassment lawsuit.https://t.co/lQExssUrI0
— Meghann Cuniff (@meghanncuniff) April 24, 2024
I think the idea that this is somehow a sexual abuse lawsuit stems from what Garcia says happened in Ibiza, which by my reading is the only basis for the lawsuit’s “hostile work environment” claim.
Absent that, this would be one of the stodgiest wage-and-hour lawsuits out there. pic.twitter.com/MQRUeYKqwF
— Meghann Cuniff (@meghanncuniff) April 24, 2024