Ye sued for sexual harassment by former Yeezy employee

Much of the alleged harassment occurred before Ye made public anti-Semitic comments in late 2022, which led to brands like Adidas abruptly cutting ties with the world-famous rapper, formerly known as Kanye West.

Ye’s press secretary, Sasha Brookner, sent a lengthy statement to the Washington Post denying the allegations and attributing the allegations to a “legal representative” whom she declined to name. “In response to these baseless allegations, Ye will file a lawsuit against Ms. Pisciotta, who actively sexually pursued him to obtain employment and other material benefits and who then blackmailed and extorted him when her advances were rebuffed,” the statement said.

Pisciotta’s lawyer did not respond to a request for comment.

In the lawsuit, filed in a Los Angeles court on Monday, Pisciotta said she was hired as a 24-hour on-call assistant for the Ye and Yeezy brands around July 2021 for an annual salary of $1 million. At the time, the lawsuit says, Pisciotta had a social media presence on Instagram and was making money on OnlyFans, a website often used for amateur pornography and modeling. Pisciotta said she had previously worked with Ye on three tracks from his 2021 album “Donda” and on Yeezy’s women’s clothing line.

In August 2022, Pisciotta claimed, Ye offered her $1 million if she deleted her OnlyFans account and told her to be “godlike.” She agreed but was never paid the extra money, the lawsuit says.

After deleting the account, the lawsuit says, Pisciotta began receiving profanity-laced text messages, videos and images from Ye. In those messages, he discussed his sexual desires and talked about masturbation. She also alleged in the lawsuit that on a flight to Paris, Ye locked her in a room alone with him and masturbated under the covers while she sat in a chair across from him.

“Defendant often told Plaintiff that he always wanted to have sex with her and that he had harbored these feelings for a very long time,” the lawsuit states. “Defendant also falsely bragged about having sex with Plaintiff or implied to his friends, business associates, and music and fashion partners that he had sex with Plaintiff.” Pisciotta said in the lawsuit that she never had sex with Ye and did not want to. However, Ye’s representatives claim that Pisciotta sent her boss unsolicited nude photos and offered to have sex with him on his birthday, an offer Ye declined.

In September 2022, Pisciotta said she was promoted to chief of staff for several of Yeezy’s business units and her annual salary was increased by $3 million, but she was reportedly never paid. About a month later, in October, she was fired from Yeezy and offered a $3 million severance package, the lawsuit says. She accepted the offer but was never paid, the lawsuit says.

Ye’s “obsession, fixation and stalking” of Pisciotta continued even after his termination, the lawsuit says. The “Carnival” singer moved into the same building as Pisciotta, where the rapper’s “unprofessional and harassing behavior” continued, the lawsuit says.

The statement from Ye’s publicist gave a completely different version of events, saying Pisciotta was fired for incompetence, demanding a $4 million annual salary and “numerous documented incidents of her lascivious, deranged behavior.” The statement said she stole Ye’s phone before being fired in an unsuccessful attempt to destroy evidence of her behavior.

This is not the first time Ye has faced dissatisfaction from his employees. According to a November 2022 report by Rolling Stone, several Yeezy employees accused the rapper of showing them pornographic material and sexual content. Adidas launched an investigation into employee complaints about Ye’s behavior toward them, as he and Adidas had a business partnership. (Adidas had severed business ties with Ye and Yeezy in October 2022 after he made anti-Semitic remarks. Several other companies, such as Balenciaga and JPMorgan Chase, did the same.)

Most recently, right-wing commentator Milo Yiannopoulos, who previously served as Yeezy’s chief of staff, left the company after the two reportedly clashed over “Yeezy Porn,” apparently an adult film company Ye wanted to launch. Ye had previously claimed to be addicted to pornography, which he said had harmed his family.