Tyler Perry is sued for $260 million over actor's sexual harassment claims
Entertainment mogul Tyler Perry has been named in a $260 million lawsuit filed Friday in Los Angeles, claiming he sexually harassed an actor.
Actor Derek Dixon said in legal docs reviewed by Daily Mail that Perry, 55, aggressively tried to establish an sexual dynamic between them when he appeared on two of Perry's programs on BET: Ruthless and The Oval.
Perry, who counts Oprah and Meghan Markle among his closest confidantes, 'will not be shaken down and we are confident these fabricated claims of harassment will fail,' his lawyer Matthew Boyd told Daily Mail in a statement Tuesday.
Boyd said of Dixon: 'This is an individual who got close to Tyler Perry for what now appears to be nothing more than setting up a scam.'
Described by The Sunday Times as one of the 'most powerful people in the film and television industry - and one of the richest', Perry famously lent his $18m California home to the Duke and Duchess of Sussex after they quit the royal family in 2020.
At the time neither Markle nor Perry had met each other, but the pair are now close friends as he is godfather to the couple's daughter Lilibet.
Daily Mail has reached out to reps for Perry, BET and Dixon via his Instagram page, for further comment on the story.
A legal complaint filed against Perry by Dixon's team states that Perry at first promised the actor 'career advancement and creative opportunities.'
They included commitments such 'as producing his pilot and casting him in his show,' according to legal docs.
Perry subjected Dixon 'to escalating sexual harassment, assault and battery, and professional retaliation when [Dixon] did not reciprocate Mr. Perry's unwanted advances.'
Dixon in legal docs said he first crossed paths with Perry in September of 2019 at his Tyler Perry Studios in Atlanta.
Dixon said in the legal complaint that after he first met the mogul at a party for one of Perry's shows, the New Orleans-born star began to send him text messages with sexually-suggestive themes.
In the legal complaint, Dixon said that Perry looked to establish 'a coercive, sexually exploitative dynamic' between them when he worked on the set of The Oval and Ruthless, portraying a character by the name of Dale.
Dixon said Perry offered to carve out a roll for him that would change his life, beginning in November of 2019 with a role in the series Ruthless.
And in January of 2020, Dixon alleges he was sexually assaulted by Perry at the entertainment mogul's home, according to the legal complaint.
In February 2020, Dixon told the court, Perry offered him a recurring role on The Oval. (He wound up playing the role of Dale over 85 episodes spread over five seasons from 2021–2025.)
Dixon said Perry displayed his massive power by leaving his character Dale with an unknown fate to conclude The Oval's first season.
'Mr. Perry made it clear to Dixon that if Dixon ignored Perry or failed to engage with the sexual innuendos, Dixon's character would 'die' in the next season,' the actor's legal complaint read.
Perry subject Dixon to 'escalating sexual harassment, assault and battery, and professional retaliation when Mr. Dixon did not reciprocate Mr. Perry's unwanted advances,' the legal complaint stated.
Dixon said in his legal complaint that Perry's harassment also occurred in the wake of filming the scene in which his character Dale had been shot.
In the legal complaint, the actor said that the entertainment magnate began to aggressively grope his buttocks 'in a sexual motion,' which also had happened during an October 2020 Bahamas trip with the case.
Dixon said that a doctor's visit in late 2020 'indicated that [he] exhibited severe symptoms of acute stress, insomnia, stomach issues, and dangerously low cortisol levels due to the sexual harassment and assault.'
He also said he was subsequently prescribed the antidepressant Zoloft in December of 2020.
Dixon stated in the legal complaint that in June of 2021, he went to Perry's house to talk about a potential pilot for a show called Losing It.
Perry had told him he was interested in producing the program prior to the meeting, Dixon said in legal documents.
The actor said that during this meeting four years ago, Perry sexually assaulted him, leading to severe depression, anxiety, stomach pains, nausea and PTSD in the months that followed.
Dixon said in the legal complaint, he told Perry in January of 2023 that he was relocating to California to establish 'some distance' between the two of them and that the move cost him nearly $400,000, as he was sidelined during the final season of The Oval as result of his relocation.
Dixon accuses Perry of sexual harassment, battery and assault and more in the lawsuit, requesting a total of $260 million in damages.
Perry was in a long-term relationship with Gelila Bekele after they began dating in 2009.
Perry and his model ex welcomed their son Aman in 2014, two years after they first met at a Prince concert.
Over their 13-year relationship, the pair rarely spoke of their dating life, in public, and have been vocal about also wanting to maintain their little boy's privacy.
When asked about marriage in a 2013 appearance on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Perry admitted he wasn't sure if he could ever see himself walk down the aisle.
And in December 2020 he revealed he and Gelila had split and he was now a batchelor.
'This is what a midlife crisis looks like,' he wrote on Instagram in 2020. 'I'm 51, single and wondering what the next chapter in my life will look like.'
If you or someone you know has been sexually assaulted, please contact the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673) or go to rainn.org.
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