Key Takeaways
- On a new episode of Angie Martinez IRL Podcast, Lizzo said she began having anxiety attacks in 2023 after a harassment lawsuit went public.
- Among the anxiety attacks was one that occurred while Lizzo was driving, leaving her hands numb while on the freeway.
- The lawsuit stemmed from three former dancers, Arianna Davis, Crystal Williams, and Noelle Rodriguez, and a separate suit from wardrobe stylist Asha Daniels, both filed in 2023 against Lizzo and Big Grrrl Big Touring.
- A judge dismissed the fat-shaming claim in December 2025 along with remaining claims in Daniels' suit on September 1.
Being accused of workplace harassment triggered anxiety attacks in pop vocalist Lizzo that she once experienced while driving.
The four-time Grammy winner was a guest on the September 17 episode of the Angie Martinez IRL Podcast and discussed the effects that the 2023 lawsuit had on her health. Around the 26-minute mark of the episode below, Lizzo said that the “horrible lawsuit” made the public believe allegations about her that “weren’t true.”
The 38-year-old went to recall once driving on a freeway watching a sunset when chills spread out from the base of her spine and into her hands. The sensation made her hands go numb until she could barely grip the wheel. She swerved between lanes and ended up wedged between an 18-wheeler and another truck before she "somehow veered off of the freeway.”
Lizzo called her brother while driving, which was unsuccessful, before she called her doctor.
"‘Oh, this is panic. You're having a full-on panic attack,’" Lizzo recalled the doctor telling her.
The ordeal ended with Lizzo going to a gas station, where she parked and was assisted out of her car. “It's trauma trapped in the base of your spine,” she explained. “And that trauma can be triggered by anything because it's down here. It don't need a thought to be triggered. It just a sensation, a feeling, a familiar thing…We’re not okay.”
The case Lizzo pointed to as her trigger began in August 2023, when three of her former dancers, Arianna Davis, Crystal Williams, and Noelle Rodriguez, sued over alleged sexual harassment and a hostile work environment. Wardrobe stylist Asha Daniels also filed a separate suit against Big Grrrl Big Touring, which was dismissed earlier this month.
Allegations of fat-shaming from the dancers' case were dismissed in December 2025, although the lawsuit remains ongoing.
"It wasn't even about the lawsuit. It was how it was being received by everyone... this was just a very public attack on the fiber of my being, everything that I represent," Lizzo told Martinez.
In June, Lizzo appeared on Today show, where she shared her anticipation of the ”truth coming out” after her refusal to settle the lawsuit.
“I’m not afraid to fight,” she said at the time. “I’m really excited for all the claims to be dropped and for us all to just move forward.”
Lizzo previously recalled the incident during a chat with Jay Shetty. “"I had this thought, I was like, 'Everybody hates me. Everybody hates me for something that isn't true, but at the end of the day, because of the position I'm in, everybody hates me, and there's nothing you can do about it,'" she said at the time. "I got into the house, I could barely walk, and I collapsed by my bed and was like, 'Oh shit.' I couldn't breathe... from then on, I have been in a state of depression because I didn't know how to fix it."
