Pink And Avril Lavigne Have Defended Kesha In Dr Luke Defamation Lawsuit

Warning: This article discusses sexual assault. 

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Pink and Avril Lavigne have come to Kesha’s defense in her ongoing legal battle against her former producer Dr Luke.

The ‘Praying‘ singer is currently being sued for defamation by Dr Luke (real name Lukasz Gottwald), who claims that her allegations of sexual assault against him have cost him work and money.

Their legal battle has been going on since 2014, shortly after Kesha first went public with her allegations. Kesha attempted to countersue Gottwald, but her application was denied by the New York Supreme Court last March — her subsequent appeal against the court’s decision also failed.

Now, documents obtained by The Blast reveal that Pink and Lavigne have each submitted affidavits in support of Kesha, both stating that the singer had no influence on their decisions to stop working with Gottwald.

They each submitted the statements in April this year, signing under the point: “The reason I have not worked with Dr. Luke since 2006 has nothing to do with Kesha Sebert, her words, or her actions.”

You can view the statements here. It was also revealed that Lady Gaga, Kelly Clarkson, and Adam Levine have given evidence in the case — although just what they said remains unknown.

It comes barely a month after court documents disclosed that Dr Luke was refuting a claim by Kesha that he raped his former collaborator Katy Perry. In their court filing, Gottwald’s legal team states that Kesha had sent a text message to Lady Gaga in 2016 telling her that Gottwald had raped Perry.

“On February 26, 2016, Defendant [Kesha] sent a text message to Stefani Germanotta p/k/a/ [person known as] Lady Gaga which repeated Defendant’s false claim that Gottwald raped her,” the documents read. “In this text message, Defendant also falsely asserted that Gottwald had also raped Kathryn Hudson p/k/a/ Katy Perry.

“Following this text message conversation, and with Defendant’s encouragement, Ms. Germanotta spread negative messages about Gottwald in the press and on social media,” it continued. “For example, in February 2016, Ms. Germanotta posted multiple articles discussing Defendant’s defamatory statements on her Twitter page.” 

According to the same documents, Perry had also testified in the case.

In another development, a New York judge has now ordered Kesha’s label, Sony, to disclose the identities of those it interviewed for their internal investigation into Gottwald. Sony had previously argued that the disclosure would violate attorney-client privilege — but as the label are no longer a party in the case, Judge Jennifer Schecter ruled that they could release the information without revealing Gottwald’s team’s “legal strategy“.

The Judge’s decision might seem small, but it could become a significantly powerful precedent in the #MeToo era.