WWE boss Vince McMahon has been accused of sex trafficking in a new lawsuit filed by a former employee, who claims the 78-year-old billionaire defecated on her head during a threesome.
Janel Grant, who previously agreed to a $3 million settlement in exchange for signing a nondisclosure agreement in 2022, has filed a new lawsuit against McMahon, the WWE and a former executive. In that filing, obtained by DailyMail.com, Grant claims McMahon stopped making payments after the initial $1 million instalment, and she now seeks to void that agreement.
Furthermore, Grant claims she suffered bruising and bleeding after McMahon forcefully penetrated her with sex toys, which he named after his wrestlers. She also alleges that McMahon and another WWE executive locked her in a room at the WWE’s Stamford, Connecticut headquarters in June of 2021 and took turns sexually assaulting her during the work day. The married Vince McMahon is additionally accused of trafficking Grant to other men and sharing nude photographs of the plaintiff.
Grant is seeking unspecified damages.
Neither McMahon’s lawyer nor WWE spokespeople have responded to DailyMail.com’s request for comment. The organization previously described McMahon’s sexual relationship with Grant as ‘consensual’ in a 2022 statement.
‘Today’s complaint seeks to hold accountable two WWE executives who sexually assaulted and trafficked Plaintiff Janel Grant, as well as the organization that facilitated or turned a blind eye to the abuse and then swept it under the rug,’ read a statement from attorney Ann Callis, who is representing Grant.
‘She is an incredibly private and courageous person who has suffered deeply at the hands of Mr. McMahon and Mr. [John] Laurinaitis. Ms. Grant hopes that her lawsuit will prevent other women from being victimized. The organization is well aware of Mr. McMahon’s history of depraved behaviour, and it’s time that they take responsibility for the misconduct of its leadership.’
Laurinaitis was fired from the company in 2022.
The lawsuit comes as Vince McMahon is reducing his role within the company. He briefly left the WWE in 2022, when the initial allegations of his infidelities first surfaced in a Wall Street Journal report.
And this week, former wrestler Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson was appointed to the board of directors at TKO, the umbrella company formed by the UFC-WWE merger. Meanwhile, another former wrestler, Triple H (AKA Paul Levesque) has replaced McMahon as the WWE’s chief content officer.
The WWE board learned of McMahon’s relationship with Grant from an anonymous tip in 2022 and launched an internal investigation, which subsequently uncovered $14.6 million in other alleged payments by the executive to various women.
Grant’s filing alleges that McMahon ensnared her in a sexual relationship by promising to help advance her career before ultimately exploiting her and trafficking her to other executives within the company.
In one alleged text message from 2020, McMahon is accused of sharing a photo of Grant with others and writing: ‘She may scream and try to say NO!! although it would B difficult to say anything with a c*** down her throat.’
Another message allegedly sent by McMahon to Grant a month earlier read: ‘I’m the only one who owns U and controls who I want to f*** U.’
WWE executive and retired wrestler John Laurinaitis is also named as a defendant in the suit.
Grant claims that McMahon directed her to regularly visit Laurinaitis at a hotel, where the two had daily sexual encounters prior to reporting to the office.
‘I’ve left that hotel feeling bad about myself every time,’ Grant claims she told McMahon.
John is the uncle of former NFL linebacker James Laurinaitis. His brothers Joe and Marcus also wrestled in the WWE.
In one alleged sexual encounter in May of 2020, Grant claims McMahon defecated on her head during a threesome before commanding her to continue pleasuring his ”friend.”
‘Upon his return from the bathroom, McMahon and his ”friend” actively resumed the threesome, which lasted over an hour and a half, while Ms. Grant remained covered in McMahon’s filth,’ the filing continued. ‘When McMahon’s ”friend” left, McMahon ordered her to stay and to continue to sexually gratify him.’
Vince McMahon is already being investigated by federal prosecutors over the alleged payments, and according to The Wall Street Journal, agents executed a search warrant for his phone and served him a grand jury subpoena in July of 2023.
He has not been charged with any crime in the case.
‘Throughout this experience, I have always denied any intentional wrongdoing and continue to do so,’ McMahon said in 2023 about the federal probe. ‘I am confident that the government’s investigation will be resolved without any findings of wrongdoing.’
According to the filing, Grant began working at the company at a difficult time in her life in 2019.
‘The two met in March 2019, when Ms. Grant was dealing with profound grief and struggling financially – after devoting years to around-the-clock caregiving, her parents passed away,’ read the filing. ‘On top of that, she was unemployed and her family home was lost in her parents’ bankruptcy.’
Initially, Vince McMahon seemed like a saviour for Grant, but she soon began to feel otherwise.
‘As McMahon dangled career-making and life-changing promises in front of Ms. Grant, he demonstrated an increasing lack of boundaries,’ read the filing. ‘During several meetings that were ostensibly about a potential job at WWE, he greeted her in his underwear, touched her, repeatedly asked for hugs, and spent hours sharing intimate details about his personal life.’
McMahon allegedly pushed her for a sexual relationship, while insisting that she keep their affair quiet.
But when she began to seek a way to end the fling, she claims it became clear to her that her job was tied to her willingness to perform sexually for McMahon.
‘Despite Ms. Grant’s expressions of unhappiness and attempts to end the sexual relationship—and while she came to understand that McMahon expected the physical relationship to continue as part of her employment—she had no idea how sordid it would become, nor how the psychological torture and physical violence would leave her feeling helpless, isolated and trapped,’ read the filing.
Ultimately, Grant says her worsening health caused McMahon to send her to a doctor and pay $20,000 to another to perform surgery on her.
Then, in 2021, Grant says McMahon told her to make ‘personalized sexual content for WWE Superstar’ whom he hoped to re-sign. The filing does not identify the individual, but did describe him as a ‘former UFC Heavyweight Champion.’
After re-signing the unidentified individual, McMahon allegedly texted Grant in August to say: ‘Part of the deal was f***ing U.’
The above text included in Grant’s filing purportedly shows McMahon instructing her to have sex with WWE exec John Laurinaitis
McMahon ‘abruptly distanced himself’ from Grant in January of 2022 when his wife, former US Senate candidate Linda McMahon, became aware of the affair, according to the filing.
McMahon then allegedly pressured Grant to remain quiet about their affair, warning her that Linda would seek a divorce, which could lead to Grant suffering reputational harm.
According to the lawsuit, he then told Grant that someone identified in the filing as ‘WWE Corporate Officer No. 1’ would help her find employment elsewhere, while also instructing her to sign an NDA.
Grant ultimately left the company in early 2022 and she received the first $1 million instalment of her $3 million NDA agreement in February of that year.
However, Grant claims, she was forced to perform one last sexual act with McMahon when they met at his condo soon thereafter.
‘As Ms. Grant knelt on the hard floor, barely a few feet away from the front door, McMahon opened his robe and ordered her to ”Eat him!”’ the filing read.
‘McMahon grabbed the back of Ms. Grant’s head and slammed her face into his crotch a couple times until she gagged and pushed him away, telling him to stop and that she couldn’t breathe.’
Grant says she never saw McMahon again after the violent sexual encounter.