A lawsuit filed at the Los Angeles Superior Court on Monday is claiming that supermodel Tyra Banks had physically and verbally traumatized the complainant’s daughter.
Radar reported that the complainant and her husband had auditioned in January in New York for upcoming season of “America’s Got Talent.” The complainant said that for their audition, she sang a song about motherhood, which “held a certain long-term emotional importance” to “Mary,” her daughter. But at the taped audition, the complainant claimed she and her family were “publicly humiliated” by the judges and at least one audience member.
The most damning accusation in the lawsuit? The complainant said Banks “insinuated that Mary was accidentally conceived, made fun of the performance and ridiculed [the song] in front of Mary, all in front of active cameras that were filming Mary.”
Banks is the show’s current host and acts as an agent of Marathon Productions, Vulture said.
Deadline said the complainant had asked “AGT” producers to not show the footage of their performance and her child’s reaction, to which the latter agreed. Moreover, she said the producers had forced her daughter to sign a waiver, which will acknowledge that they will be publicly humiliated on the show, without her parents’ consent.
The complainant is seeking unspecified damages for “negligent infliction of emotional distress, civil battery, and civil assault,” and added that her daughter has suffered “emotional distress” after the episode. The complainant is also seeking a jury trial.
Banks and representatives for Marathon Productions have yet to comment in public about the lawsuit.
