Paula Abdul and Nigel Lythgoe Settle Sexual Assault Lawsuit 1 Year After She Sued Him: A 'Hard-Fought Personal Battle' (Exclusive)

Paula Abdul and Nigel Lythgoe have reached a settlement in their lawsuit.

According to court documents obtained by PEOPLE, the pair settled the case, in which Abdul accused the producer of sexual assault, in an "unconditional" manner on Monday, Dec. 9.

Abdul, 62, spoke out in an exclusive statement to PEOPLE on Friday, Dec. 13, saying she was glad to finally move forward and hopes her story will inspire other women going through similar challenges.

"I am grateful that this chapter has successfully come to a close and is now something I can now put behind me," she said. "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."

PEOPLE has reached out to Lythgoe's attorneys for comment.

The settlement comes one year after Abdul sued Lythgoe, who she worked with on American Idol and So You Think You Can Dance, claiming he sexually assaulted her on two occasions — once during the early seasons of Idol and once during her tenure on SYTYCD. She also accused him of sexually assaulting her assistant.

In October 2024, Abdul submitted her first amended complaint, which included new details of the incidents and alleged he assaulted her a third time during the same incident that involved her assistant.

Lythgoe submitted a response to the filing that month, calling Abdul’s claims "vague both as to the timing of the alleged assault and as to the details of the supposed incident.” He wrote that they could not "form the basis of any of her claims against Lythgoe."

He argued that she "suddenly 'remembered' additional details,” which “stretches credulity that Abdul would supposedly remember witnessing her assistant allegedly being assaulted by Lythgoe in April 2015 and yet apparently ‘forget,’ until the filing of her FAC, that she also allegedly was assaulted at that same time — let alone be able to suddenly remember specific details of the alleged incident, as her FAC now alleges,” per the documents.

In the filing, Lythgoe included several text exchanges between him and Abdul, in which she expressed love for him and their friendship.

“It is unthinkable that Abdul would even tolerate Lythgoe’s physical proximity, let alone send him adoring messages and sexually provocative jokes, if her allegations were true – which, clearly, they are not,” his filing alleged.

Abdul's lawyer responded to Lythgoe's claims in a statement to PEOPLE at the time, saying: "Mr. Lythgoe’s use of the pleadings in this lawsuit to cast aspersions on Ms. Abdul is not just a futile effort to besmirch Ms. Abdul's strong reputation but is wholly improper, and Ms. Abdul will be moving to strike Mr. Lythgoe's filing from the record."

Lythgoe’s response went on to question Abdul’s credibility, citing interviews about her past contradicting statements about her substance abuse, along with claims she had been in a plane crash in 1992 with allegedly no proof. In the filing, he called Abdul “a pathological liar and attention seeker.”

“She invents stories and then she doubles down, always working to make herself appear the victim,” it alleged. “Consistent with her past pattern of telling lies about incidents that allegedly happened to her, Abdul’s recent allegations against Lythgoe are pure fiction. There is only one victim here and that is Lythgoe, whose life and career have been decimated by Abdul’s lies.”

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In the past, Abdul's team called Lythgoe’s behavior "classic victim shaming.”

"Mr. Lythgoe fails to appreciate that he held a position of power over Ms. Abdul. He was a producer on American Idol and SYTYCD and she was the talent," Abdul's lawyer Melissa Eubanks claimed. "He held the cards to her career in his hand and he knew it. It thus is no surprise that Ms. Abdul placated to his ego with positive messaging and seeming adoration. These are the defenses that many women like Ms. Abdul had to adopt to deal with men who abuse their power."

If you or someone you know has been sexually assaulted, please contact the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673) or go to rainn.org.

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