Lizzo says she was deeply depressed and 'very paranoid and isolated' after ex-dancers filed a sexual harassment and weight-shaming lawsuit against her

A year and a half after falling into a deep depression, Lizzo is ready to talk about it.

The Grammy-winning hitmaker, while chatting with Women’s Health for its summer issue, reflected on her declining mental health in the summer of 2023. Lizzo’s poor mental health coincided with a bombshell lawsuit filed by three former dancers accusing her of sexual harassment and fostering hostile working conditions.

“You look around and think about every person you’ve ever known and every experience, and you wonder, Was that real?” she recalled to Women’s Health. “I got very paranoid and isolated. I used to walk into glam and be like, ‘Oh, let me tell you about this crazy s*** that happened last night!’ I couldn’t do that anymore. I pushed everyone away. I wasn’t even talking to my therapist.”

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“I wasn’t present. I wasn’t open. I wasn’t myself anymore,” Lizzo added.

The lawsuit was filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court on Aug. 1, 2023, by Crystal Williams, Arianna Davis and Noelle Rodriguez, who worked as Lizzo’s backup dancers from 2021 to 2023 on her tour, the Special Tour, the Los Angeles Times reported. In it, they alleged that the “Juice” singer pressured them to touch a nude performer at a club in Amsterdam, made fun of them for their weight and subjected them to an “excruciating” re-audition process.

Lizzo, whose real name is Melissa Viviane Jefferson, her production company, Big Grrrl Big Touring, and her dance captain Shirlene Quigley were listed as defendants in the lawsuit, according to a filing obtained by NBC News.

Williams and Davis previously competed on the singer’s reality TV competition show, Watch Out for the Big Grrrls. The series, which aired one, eight-episode season in 2022, saw women compete to join Lizzo’s tour as her backup dancers. Rodriguez, meanwhile, was hired by Lizzo after performing in her “Rumors” video, NBC News also reported.

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“The stunning nature of how Lizzo and her management team treated their performers seems to go against everything Lizzo stands for publicly, while privately she weight-shames her dancers and demeans them in ways that are not only illegal but absolutely demoralizing,” Ron Zambrano, the dancers’ attorney, said in a statement obtained by the Los Angeles Times when the lawsuit was filed in 2023.

Lizzo on stage in Perth, Australia, July 2023. (Matt Jelonek/WireImage)

Lizzo denied these allegations in an Instagram post in 2023, writing, “These last few days have been gut wrenchingly difficult and overwhelmingly disappointing.”

“My work ethic, morals and respectfulness have been questioned. My character has been criticized. Usually I choose not to respond to false accusations but these are as unbelievable as they sound and too outrageous to not be addressed.”

As she grappled with the fallout of the lawsuit and associated allegations, Lizzo struggled mentally. She told Women’s Health that all she wanted was to disappear.

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“You ever get tired of living?” she asked while reflecting. “It got to the point where I was like, ‘I could die.’ I never attempted to kill myself or thought about it, but I did think, If everyone hates you and thinks you’re a terrible person, then what’s the point? ”

The 37-year-old singer has previously spoken out about the lawsuit and how it affected her mental health. Her Women’s Health interview is just the latest instance of that.

In an Instagram post from May 2024, nearly a year after the lawsuit was filed, Lizzo shared an update on how she’s been moving through her depression.

“I’m the happiest I’ve been in 10 months,” she wrote alongside a mirror selfie. “The strange thing about depression is you don’t know you’re in it until you’re out of it. I’m definitely not all the way as carefree as I used to be ... but the dark cloud that followed me every day is finally clearing up.”

Lizzo in Los Angeles, March 12. (Christopher Polk/Billboard via Getty Images)

She gave fans another update on her mental health during her Los Angeles concert in March 2025. Speaking once more on her struggle with depression, Lizzo opened up about how that experience inspired the title of her forthcoming album, Love in Real Life.

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“About a year and a half ago, I was in such a dark, deep depression. I was so heartbroken by the world, and so deeply hurt that I didn’t want to live anymore,” she told the crowd. “And I was so deeply afraid of people that I didn’t want to be seen. And eventually, I got over that fear.”

Despite being afraid to face the public, she attended a concert after months of isolation.

“As I was walking through the crowd to get to my spot, something miraculous happened,” she recounted. “Somebody, who I didn’t know, looked at me and said, ‘Lizzo, I love you.’ And they reached out, and I reached back, and we hugged. And it felt so damn good. … It was f***ing life-saving.”

In May 2025, the “Truth Hurts” singer appealed to overturn a ruling from 2024 that allowed the sexual harassment lawsuit to proceed, calling it an attack on her “First Amendment right to perform her music and advocate for body positivity,” according to Billboard.

Judge Mark Epstein in 2024 tossed out a number of allegations against Lizzo, including claims that she had fat-shamed the dancers. He did, however, allow several accusations to move forward toward a possible trial, the outlet reported.

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