{"id":383018,"date":"2026-01-02T06:56:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-02T06:56:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/383018\/"},"modified":"2026-01-02T06:56:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-02T06:56:07","slug":"will-smith-sued-by-violinist-for-harassment-and-wrongful-termination","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/383018\/","title":{"rendered":"Will Smith Sued by Violinist for Harassment and Wrongful Termination"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tWill Smith has been sued<\/a> by a tour violinist who is accusing the rapper of sexual harassment, wrongful termination and retaliation.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn the suit, filed yesterday and reviewed by Variety, musician Brian King Joseph names Smith and Treyball Studios Management as defendants and accuses Smith of \u201cpredatory behavior\u201d and \u201cdeliberately grooming and priming Mr. Joseph for further sexual exploitation\u201d while on his \u201cBased on a True Story: 2025 Tour\u201d this past spring.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe suit alleges that Smith hired Joseph in November 2024 to perform at a show in San Diego and was subsequently invited to join his 2025 tour and play on his upcoming album. As their relationship grew closer, Smith told Joseph that \u201cyou and I have such a special connection, that I don\u2019t have with anyone else,\u201d among other similar expressions.<\/p>\n

\n\tJoseph, who previously competed on \u201cAmerica\u2019s Got Talent,\u201d joined the first leg of Smith\u2019s tour in March 2025 for a show in Las Vegas, where hotel rooms had been booked for the band and crew members. His suit claims that his bag, which contained his hotel room key, went missing for several hours before management found and returned it to him, and that members of management were the \u201conly individuals with access to [his] room.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tLater that night, Joseph returned to find that someone had \u201cunlawfully\u201d entered the room and left behind belongings including wipes, a bottle of HIV medication with another individual\u2019s name, and a note that read, \u201cBrian, I\u2019ll be back no later [sic] 5:30, just us (drawn heart), Stone F,\u201d which Joseph interpreted as a warning that \u201can unknown individual would soon return to his room to engage in sexual acts\u201d with him.<\/p>\n

\n\tHe notified hotel security and Smith\u2019s representatives and reported the incident to a non-emergency police line. He claims that just days later, a member of the management team \u201cshamed\u201d him for the incident and told him he was being terminated, suggesting that Joseph made the whole thing up.<\/p>\n

\n\tA representative for Smith did not immediately respond to Variety\u2018s request for comment.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe suit claims that due to the termination, Joseph suffered from PTSD and economic loss. He is suing for retaliation, wrongful termination and sexual harassment, and that damages be determined by a jury.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Will Smith has been sued by a tour violinist who is accusing the rapper of sexual harassment, wrongful…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":383019,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[49,48,75,503],"class_list":["post-383018","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-entertainment","tag-will-smith"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/383018","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=383018"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/383018\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/383019"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=383018"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=383018"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=383018"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}