Paula Abdul has reached a private settlement with American Idol and So You Think You Can Dance producer Nigel Lythgoe. According to court documents obtained by the Associated Press and People, Abdul filed to end the lawsuit she filed in December 2023 that accused him of sexually assaulting her two times (once while she was judging American Idol in the early 2000s and once around the time she began judging So You Think You Can Dance in 2015). In an amended complaint submitted this October, Abdul further alleged that he had sexually assaulted her on a third occasion. The case was previously scheduled to go to trial in August 2025, but is now expected to be dismissed.
“I am grateful that this chapter has successfully come to a close and is now something I can now put behind me,” Abdul said in a statement on December 13. “This has been a long and hard-fought personal battle. I hope my experience can serve to inspire other women, facing similar struggles, to overcome their own challenges with dignity and respect, so that they too can turn the page and begin a new chapter of their lives.” She previously settled with the production companies behind American Idol and SYTYCD — originally named as co-defendants — in April.
Lythgoe, who has denied all of Abdul’s allegations and maintained that their interactions had been “entirely platonic,” also addressed the settlement in a December 13 statement. “We live in a troubling time where a person is now automatically assumed to be guilty until proven innocent, a process that can take years,” he said. “That is why, like Paula, I am glad to be able to put this behind me. I know the truth and that gives me great comfort.”
In the months after Abdul filed her original complaint, Lythgoe was sued for sexual assault by four other anonymous accusers, including two women who filed a joint claim over allegations tied to their time competing on the reality show All American Girl in 2003. Per Rolling Stone, Lythgoe was dismissed from the All American Girl suit this July, with a judge ruling that a law that lifts the statute of limitations for certain sexual-abuse claims did not apply to their allegations. Lythgoe celebrated the decision, saying in a statement at the time, “I hope and expect that this will be the first of many similar wins as I continue to fight to clear my name.”
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