{"id":343170,"date":"2026-03-07T15:55:54","date_gmt":"2026-03-07T20:55:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.etrafficlane.com\/60dollarmiracle\/woman-sues-author-amy-griffin-saying-her-memoir-the-tell-stole-stories-of-sexual-abuse"},"modified":"2026-03-07T15:55:58","modified_gmt":"2026-03-07T20:55:58","slug":"woman-sues-author-amy-griffin-saying-her-memoir-the-tell-stole-stories-of-sexual-abuse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.etrafficlane.com\/60dollarmiracle\/woman-sues-author-amy-griffin-saying-her-memoir-the-tell-stole-stories-of-sexual-abuse","title":{"rendered":"Girl sues creator Amy Griffin, saying her memoir &#8216;The Inform&#8217; stole tales of sexual abuse"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div data-testid=\"prism-article-body\">\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao MvWXB TjIXL aGjvy ebVHC \">A woman has sued author and venture capitalist Amy Griffin over her <a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/oprah-winfrey-amy-griffin-book-club-27eb9db696dc836aae4b69cde748b34e\">bestselling 2025 memoir \u201cThe Tell,\u201d<\/a> saying that Griffin&#8217;s descriptions of childhood sexual abuse in the book were stolen from her experience. <\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">The plaintiff identifies herself only as Jane Doe in the lawsuit filed Wednesday in Los Angeles Superior Court. An attorney for Griffin called the suit \u201cabsurd\u201d and \u201cmeritless.\u201d <\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">In \u201cThe Tell,\u201d published a year ago, Griffin writes that undergoing therapy using the psychedelic drug MDMA uncovered previously buried childhood memories of being sexually abused by a teacher at her middle school in Amarillo, Texas, in the 1980s. <\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">\u201cI knew that these memories were real,\u201d Griffin writes in the book. \u201cMy body knew what had happened to me.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">The memoir was an Oprah\u2019s Book Club selection and was also touted by Reese Witherspoon and Gwyneth Paltrow. <\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">In the lawsuit, the plaintiff says the descriptions match her own sexual assaults by a different teacher at a school dance and in a school bathroom. The lawsuit says Griffin had reason to know about the abuse. <\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">\u201c&#8217;The Tell&#8217; constitutes neither a genuine nor harmless memoir,\u201d the lawsuit says, alleging Griffin engaged in intrusion, invasion of privacy, publication of private facts, negligence and infliction of emotional distress. It seeks damages to be determined at trial. <\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">The lawsuit also names Griffin&#8217;s publishers and a ghostwriter as defendants. <\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \"><a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/09\/24\/nyregion\/amy-griffin-memoir-psychedelic-drugs.html\">The New York Times<\/a> published a story in September raising questions about the book. It included people who expressed doubts about the reliability of the memories. The story also pointed out financial ties between Griffin and the prominent people who helped promote the book. <\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">The plaintiff first learned of the existence of the memoir when the Times reached out to her during its reporting. <\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">\u201cShe immediately recognized that the character of Claudia appeared to be based on herself,\u201d the lawsuit says. \u201cShe further recognized that a number of stories attributed to the memories of Defendant GRIFFIN that supposedly resurfaced during MDMA therapy were actually her own real life past experiences.\u201d <\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Griffin&#8217;s attorney, Thomas A. Clare, said in an email: \u201cWe look forward to exposing these meritless claims in court, as well as the deeply flawed New York Times reporting that is at the center of it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">\u201cJust like the New York Times manufactured a false narrative about Amy Griffin and \u2018The Tell,\u2019 it also engineered the premise for this absurd lawsuit,\u201d Clare said. \u201cAfter two New York Times reporters instigated this whole situation by bringing the book to her attention, the Plaintiff made her own choice to publicize her narrative to a global audience.\u201d He added, \u201cFor its part, the Times took full advantage, publicizing this inaccurate narrative despite receiving many red-flag warnings.\u201d <\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Danielle Rhoades Ha, a Times spokeswoman, said in response, \u201cWe\u2019re confident in the accuracy of our reporting.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">The lawsuit says that when the plaintiff was assaulted at the school dance, she was wearing a dress she had borrowed from Griffin. The lawsuit says the abuse would have been apparent to some people at the dance because of how she left and how she returned. It also says the dress was returned to Griffin with bodily fluids from the assault. The plaintiff also said she asked Jesus for forgiveness for the assault at a church youth group meeting that Griffin attended. <\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">The lawsuit says she met with Griffin for the first time in decades at a California coffee shop in 2019, a meeting that is recounted in the book. But the woman said she did not discuss her sexual assaults during the meeting. <\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC eTIW sUzSN \">The plaintiff says she did describe the abuse in detail to a talent agent who called her later about her life story. According to the lawsuit, the agent told the plaintiff he learned about her and her stories through an unidentified third party. The lawsuit says the agent stopped contact when she began asking him too many probing questions about him, and that details from the conversations \u201cfound their way into \u2018The Tell.\u2019 \u201d <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/abcnews.com\/US\/wireStory\/woman-sues-author-amy-griffin-memoir-stole-stories-130846488\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A woman has sued author and venture capitalist Amy Griffin over her bestselling 2025 memoir \u201cThe Tell,\u201d saying that Griffin&#8217;s descriptions of childhood sexual abuse [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":343173,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[20822,101,9131,20821,5234,6950,6108,20820,102,7101],"class_list":["post-343170","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-amarillo","tag-california","tag-claudia","tag-danielle-rhoades-ha","tag-gwyneth-paltrow","tag-jane-doe","tag-jesus","tag-new-york-instances","tag-texas","tag-the-new-york-times"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.etrafficlane.com\/60dollarmiracle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/343170","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.etrafficlane.com\/60dollarmiracle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.etrafficlane.com\/60dollarmiracle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.etrafficlane.com\/60dollarmiracle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.etrafficlane.com\/60dollarmiracle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=343170"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.etrafficlane.com\/60dollarmiracle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/343170\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":343172,"href":"https:\/\/www.etrafficlane.com\/60dollarmiracle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/343170\/revisions\/343172"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.etrafficlane.com\/60dollarmiracle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/343173"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.etrafficlane.com\/60dollarmiracle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=343170"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.etrafficlane.com\/60dollarmiracle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=343170"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.etrafficlane.com\/60dollarmiracle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=343170"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}