Megan Thee Stallion has been accused of harrassment by a former photographer, who alleged he was forced to watch her have sex with a woman.
According to NBC News, cameraman Emilio Garcia filed a lawsuit today (April 23) against the rapper (real name Megan Pete), accusing her of harrassment and creating a hostile work environment.
Garcia claimed that he was trapped inside a moving car with Pete and three other women, where she proceeded to have sex with one of the women. According to the photographer, the incident allegedly took place in June 2022 in Ibiza, Spain.
In the lawsuit, filed to the Los Angeles Superior Court, Garcia went on to allege that he was told by the rapper afterwards: “don’t ever discuss what you saw”.
“I felt uncomfortable. I was kind of frozen, and I was shocked. At kind of just be the overall audacity to do this right, right beside me,” Garcia told NBC News in an interview.
The lawsuit also states that Garcia was reportedly treated differently by Pete, with her harrassment “so severe” and “pervasive” that it created a “hostile, abusive work environment” that made Garcia’s “working conditions intolerable.”
Megan Thee Stallion (Photo by Dia Dipasupil/Getty Images)
On that same trip, Pete allegedly called Garcia a “fat bitch”, telling him to “spit your food out” and that he didn’t “need to be eating.” “To hear someone who advocates about loving your body tell me these things,” Garcia told NBC News, “I felt degraded.”
He went on to claim that he “endured a barrage of relentless sexual and fat-shaming comments plunging him into profound emotional distress,” allegedly causing Garcia to face physical injuries, physical sickness and emotional distress.
Garcia also reported a loss in earnings and decreased employment benefits, alleging that he was prohibited by the rapper from working for anyone else, along with being denied overtime pay and breaks. He was also allegedly left “without basic insurance coverage, depriving him of essential health care.”
The photographer claimed he now “grapples with mounting anxiety, depression, and physical distress stemming from the toxic work environment.”
In a statement to NBC News, Ron Zambrano, attorney for Garcia, said: “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. 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.”
Garcia is reportedly seeking more than six figures for unpaid wages (including overtime), interest on the unpaid wages, and other employee benefits at the legal rate. The photographer is also seeking penalties related to Californian labour laws, punitive damages according to proof, and any costs incurred by Garcia.
NME have reached out to Megan Thee Stallion’s representatives for comment.
In other news, Megan has said how “a lot of people didn’t treat me like I was human” after the Tory Lanez shooting.
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