The comedians have come under intense scrutiny after a woman and her younger brother accused them in a lawsuit of grooming them when they were children and coercing them to film sexually explicit comedy sketches.
Tiffany Haddish said on Instagram on Monday that she regrets agreeing to appear in a sketch six years ago that is now at the center of a sexual misconduct lawsuit against her and fellow comedian Aries Spears.
“I know people have a bunch of questions. I get it. I’m right there with you. Unfortunately, because there is an ongoing legal case, there’s very little that I can say right now,” Haddish, who starred in “Girls Trip,” said in the post.
“But, clearly, while the sketch was intended to be comedic, it wasn’t funny at all — and I deeply regret having agreed to act in it,” she added. “I really look forward to being able to share a lot more about this situation as soon as I can.”
Haddish and Spears have come under fire after a woman and her younger brother accused them of grooming them as children and forcing them to film sexually explicit comedy sketches in a lawsuit.
The lawsuit was filed last Tuesday in Los Angeles County Superior Court by siblings identified as Jane Doe, now 22, and John Doe, born in 2007. Jane, who is John’s legal guardian, filed the suit both individually and on behalf of her brother.
The suit claims that Haddish and Spears forced the siblings to perform sexually explicit skits when they were children, stealing “the youth of a 7-year-old child and a 14-year-old child.”
The Daily Beast broke the story about the lawsuit.
According to the lawsuit, the plaintiffs acted in the skits because their mother knew Haddish, but only Haddish and Spears knew the storylines ahead of time.
According to the lawsuit, Haddish taught 14-year-old Jane how to mimic fellatio on a sub sandwich in the first skit, which was filmed in 2013.
The following year, 7-year-old John appeared in a second sketch, “Through A Pedophile’s Eyes,” which featured a character played by Spears who “leers at the child lustfully,” massages the boy, and gets into a bathtub with him, according to the lawsuit.
In most of the sketch’s scenes, the boy is stripped “down to his underwear,” according to the suit.
The lawsuit alleges that the plaintiff’s mother repeatedly asked Spears and Haddish about “what was filmed that made her son cry.”