According to RadarOnline Paula Abdul is going on the defense after Nigel Lythgoe exposed their text messages.
In documents obtained by RadarOnline.com, Abdul accused the 77-year-old television executive of launching a smear campaign against her, and she included a history of their private conversations that she claimed proved the sexual harassment she allegedly suffered from him.
As this outlet reported, Abdul sued Lythgoe in December, accusing him of sexually assaulting her several times during her time as a judge on American Idol and So You Think You Can Dance.
The Straight Up singer, 61, claimed Lythgoe “cherry-picked” the messages he released, revealing she had a treasure trove of explicit alleged texts from the mogul that showed his reported harassment — and now, we have the screenshots of the illicit conversations.
One shocking conversation between the pair took place on September 14, 2015. At 10:39 PM, Lythgoe sent Abdul a text message reading,
“F— it! I’m missing you madly already x. Wanna come round and take off that beautiful dress, jump in the pool naked with me? Let’s cling to each other like we’re the last 2 people on Earth and gently make love before my drugs wear off? HaHa!”
She responded, “Good nite!” but Lythgoe didn’t stop there.
“I’m in the pool?????” he wrote back, to which Abdul later replied, “Omg! My phone died, and I just got your message! You are killing me! Hahahahahahahaha.”
Lythgoe allegedly continued to shoot his shot, writing, “Get over here quickly before everything shrinks.” Abdul responded, “I love you!”
Another alleged conversation between the two took place nearly a year earlier on April 11, 2014.
“I am hoping to rush to your honors on Saturday night? It depends what time we finish? Did you see the tie figures for Vegas? What do you think? Pretty good if we don’t have to do much?” Lythgoe text.
“Oh! I hope you can go!!! Pleeeeeezz Re: Vegas – I agree, but we really need to talk. I want to fill you in on a few things I found out. Very interesting!” Abdul said, causing Lythgoe to reply, “I’ll come if you promise me a big we kiss! With tongues! Is a small grope of the a– asking too much?”
Abdul appeared to try and brush him off again, writing, “You are something else, Nigel! One of a kind!!!!”
Adul slammed Lythgoe’s response to her lawsuit, in which he claimed their flirty conversations after the alleged incidents showed that he didn’t sexually assault her. She claimed his move was
“nothing more than bad faith posturing for the tabloids.” Abdul also accused Lythgoe of feeding his side of the story to the media.
“Not only did Lythgoe’s Answer hit the press nearly as soon as it was filed, but it is rife with argumentative and vitriolic character attacks on Ms. Abdul and superfluous background that are irrelevant to the sexual assault, battery, and harassment claims pled by Ms. Abdul or the defenses asserted by Lythgoe,” the documents filed on March 14 read.
She also claimed that Lythgoe’s response was “false and misleading,” claiming he “cherry-picks from years of messages between Lythgoe and Ms. Abdul to suggest a friendly relationship while conveniently failing to include messages supporting Ms. Abdul’s claims that she was sexually assaulted and harassed by Lythgoe for years.”
According to Abdul’s legal team, Lythgoe’s response “is a blatant attempt to smear Ms. Abdul’s reputation and to curb the negative press he has received from now being sued by 5 separate women for sexual assault and battery,” and they want it thrown out asap.
