Details of a relationship between Vince McMahon and one of the WWE employees he allegedly paid to silence have been revealed in a new lawsuit filed January 25, alleging the former WWE CEO engaged in “physical and emotional abuse, sexual assault and trafficking.†Former WWE employee Janel Grant is seeking to void the NDA she allegedly signed in exchange for reputational protection and a payout of $3 million. She alleges McMahon — whose net worth is $2.8 billion — stopped payments after she’d received only $1 million. The suit alleges that once news of McMahon’s NDA payments surfaced in June 2022, the WWE leaked Grant’s name to a media blogger — who is not named in the suit but has since been identified online as Brad Shepard — in what Grant and her legal team describe as “an overt intimidation tactic.†A spokesperson for McMahon said in a statement to Vulture that the suit is “replete with lies, obscene made-up instances that never occurred, and a vindictive distortion of the truth,†adding that McMahon will “vigorously defend himself.â€
According to the suit, Grant met McMahon in March 2019. She was grieving the loss of both her parents, for whom she had been a full-time caregiver, and in need of a job, when a building manager reportedly approached McMahon, her neighbor, to tell him about her situation and ask for his help. According to the lawsuit, McMahon then “befriended Ms. Grant, giving her hopes of a new life with promises of a yet-to-be-determined role at WWE, and showering her with attention and assurances, along with gifts like a VIP experience at WrestleMania.â€
McMahon allegedly escalated to demanding a sexual relationship with Grant in exchange for employment, while asserting his ability to “deal with people who became a problem.†According to the suit, Grant acquiesced because she “feared she had everything to lose and faced negative consequences no matter what happened.†Grant was then made an “administrator-coordinator†in the WWE’s legal department, a role created for her in June 2019, per documents. Beginning in March 2020, the suit alleges that McMahon began sharing pornographic photos and videos of Grant, some of which he recorded himself, with other men. Recipients allegedly included other WWE employees and a WWE Superstar the suit does not name but whom sources identified to The Wall Street Journal as Brock Lesnar. McMahon allegedly offered a sexual relationship with Grant to Lesnar, who allegedly demanded she send him a video of herself urinating.
The suit also alleges that McMahon subjected Grant to “extreme cruelty and degradation,†including defecating on her during a threesome, after which he “commanded her to continue pleasuring his ‘friend’ — with feces in her hair and running down her back.†McMahon is accused of harming Grant with sex toys he’d named after several WWE wrestlers and requiring her to have sex with other male employees. Named as a defendant in the lawsuit is one such employee, head of talent relations John Laurinaitis. Another incident detailed in the suit alleges that Laurinaitis and McMahon cornered Grant inside Laurinaitis’s locked office during a workday, where they took turns restraining and sexually assaulting her as she begged them to stop.
In January 2022, McMahon told Grant that his wife had found out and her time at the company was over. According to the suit, he then, over the course of multiple days, began pressuring Grant to sign an NDA and accept the $3 million. However, even after signing the NDA, McMahon allegedly attempted to traffic her to a WWE Superstar who would be visiting New York in March of that year.
In making its case to void Grant’s own NDA, the suit acknowledges that other NDAs signed by other women McMahon has attempted to silence may also be unenforceable. “Ms. Grant is filing this lawsuit not just to address her own suffering,†the suit states. “But also to act for those who are afraid to speak out.â€
This post has been updated.