‘American Idol’ producer accused of sexually assaulting Paula Abdul joked he wanted to be ‘next to abuse her’ in resurfaced interview
Nigel Lythgoe, the director and producer accused of sexual assault by Paula Abdul, joked in a 2015 interview that he “wanted to be the next person to abuse her.”
The two spoke with the Daily Beast in 2015 ahead of the premier of the 12th season of “So You Think You Can Dance,” on which Lythgoe served as executive producer and judge, alongside Abdul for two seasons.
Discussing the singer’s rocky on-air relationship with Simon Cowell during her “American Idol” days, Lythgoe told the outlet how Cowell had “abused and mistreated” her.
Abdul co-hosted the show with Cowell from 2002 to 2009 and the two often bickered in front of the cameras. Lythgoe was also a producer on “Idol.”
“We’ve known each other for so long now,” Lythgoe said at the time. “To be honest, I was an admirer of Paula back in the UK before I came here to the States. To be able to work with her on ‘Idol’ for all those years and see how she was mistreated by Simon…”
Abdul interrupted and groaned, “Oh, please,” continuing what the writer described as “playful banter.”
“So abused and mistreated,” Lythgoe continued. “I wanted to be the next person to abuse her.”
He hired Abdul to co-host the competitive dance show in 2015 and 2016.
In the years before the Daily Beast sitdown, Lythgoe twice assaulted Abdul, she now claims in a lawsuit filed against him on Friday in Los Angeles Superior Court.
Lythgoe allegedly shoved Abdul against the wall in a hotel elevator, grabbed her genitals and breasts and shoved his tongue down her throat during an incident which occurred during the early seasons of “American Idol,” she said in court documents.
In 2014, he allegedly forced himself on her after a dinner at his house, telling her they would make a great “power couple,” Abdul contends in the legal filing, in which she also accused Lythgoe of groping her assistant in 2015.
“It was clearly a difficult decision to make, but Ms. Abdul knows that she stands both in the shoes and on the shoulders of many other similarly situated survivors, and she is determined to see that justice is done,” said Abdul’s attorney, Douglas Johnson, in a statement.
Lythgoe called the allegations false and “deeply offensive.”
“While Paula’s history of erratic behavior is well known, I can’t pretend to understand exactly why she would file a lawsuit that she must know is untrue,” he said in a statement. “But I can promise that I will fight this appalling smear with everything I have.”
