Tiffany Haddish acknowledged that “people have questions” regarding the molestation and grooming allegations she and Aries Spears are facing.
“I know people have a bunch of questions. I get it. I’m right there with you,” the comedian, 42, began her Instagram statement posted Monday morning.
“Unfortunately, because there is an ongoing legal case, there’s very little that I can say right now.”
The “Night School” star said that while the “sketch was intended to be comedic, it wasn’t funny at all.
“…I deeply regret having agreed to act in it. I really look forward to being able to share a lot more about this situation as soon as I can,” she concluded.
Haddish turned off comments on the post.
A new lawsuit filed last week accused Haddish and Aries Spears of grooming a 14-year-old girl and her 7-year-old brother and coercing them to film explicit skits.
The comedians are being sued by the siblings, identified as Jane Doe, now 22, and John Doe, now 14. Jane, who is also John’s legal guardian, is the plaintiff in the lawsuit both individually and on her brother’s behalf, as he’s a minor.
In the lawsuit, the siblings’ mother alleges that she and Haddish met through comedy and developed a close relationship over their respective divorces.
“We were both going through a divorce,” the mother told the Daily Beast, which was the first to report the news of the bombshell lawsuit. “Messy, messy, messy, messy divorces … We just got really, really super, super close.”
In the summer of 2013, Haddish made a guest appearance at the summer camp Jane was attending and allegedly told her that she’d discovered “a perfect role” for the teen in a commercial. According to the suit, neither Jane nor her mother was aware of the shoot details, while Haddish and Spears, 47, allegedly knew the plot.
The shoot allegedly involved Haddish teaching Jane how to mimic fellatio for a skit about kids arguing over a sub sandwich.
“I tried to mimic what they wanted me to mimic, but it still came out just super uncomfortable,” Jane told the Daily Beast. “I knew when I left the booth that I didn’t complete what they wanted me to do.”
Haddish paid Jane $100, the lawsuit claims, before sending her home.
A year later, Haddish allegedly reached out again to express interest in John for a Nickelodeon sizzle reel.
The suit claims the 7-year-old was molested by Haddish and Spears while filming what became a disturbing video published via Funny or Die and more online platforms titled “Through a Pedophile’s Eyes.”
A representative for Funny or Die told the Daily Beast in a statement, “Funny Or Die found this video absolutely disgusting and would never produce such content. We were not involved with the conceptualization, development, funding, or production of this video. It was uploaded to the site as user-generated content and was removed in 2018 immediately after becoming aware of its existence.”
In a statement to Page Six, Spears’ attorney, Debra Opri, vehemently denied the allegations and called them a “shakedown.”
Haddish’s attorney, Andrew Brettler, echoed that the lawsuit is an extortion attempt.
“Plaintiff’s mother, Trizah Morris, has been trying to assert these bogus claims against Ms. Haddish for several years,” he told Page Six.
“Every attorney who has initially taken on her case — and there were several — ultimately dropped the matter once it became clear that the claims were meritless and Ms. Haddish would not be shaken down.”
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