A man who previously worked as a personal cameraman for Megan Thee Stallion has sued the rapper over allegations of harassment, failure to prevent a hostile work environment and other violations of California employment law.
Emilio Garcia worked as a cameraman for the rapper, real name Megan Pete, from 2018 to 2023. His allegations of improper conduct include Pete having sex in front of him as they travelled together in Ibiza, the rapper making “fat-shaming” remarks, Garcia being underpaid for his work, and Pete and her management at Roc Nation incorrectly classifying him as an independent contractor.
“Emilio should never have been put in a position of having to be in the vehicle with [Megan] while she had sex with another woman”, Garcia's lawyer Ron Zambrano states. “Inappropriate is putting it lightly. Exposing this behaviour to employees is definitely illegal”. Pete, he added, should “pay our client what he’s due, own up to her behaviour and quit this sort of sexual harassment and fat shaming conduct”.
Expanding on the Ibiza incident, the lawsuit explains that this happened in June 2022 when Garcia was on tour with Pete. At the end of a night out, the legal filing claims, he was in a car with Pete and three other women. The rapper and one of the other women then starting having sex in the vehicle.
Garcia “could not get out of the car as it was both moving and he was in the middle of nowhere in a foreign country”. He was “embarrassed, mortified and offended throughout the whole ordeal”. The following day Pete told him to never discuss what he had witnessed.
Elsewhere, Garcia alleges, Pete “directed her fat-shaming comments” towards him, including remarks like “fat bitch”, “spit your food out” and “you don’t need to be eating”.
In terms of his classification as an independent contractor, Garcia argues that under employment rules in California he should have been treated as an employee. Among other things, he claims, Pete directly controlled and managed his work, he was obliged to undertake creative and administrative duties beyond filming the rapper, and he was told he couldn't take on other clients or projects.
However, by being classified as a contractor he was “left without basic insurance coverage, depriving him of essential healthcare”. It also allowed Pete and her management to change the way he was paid - moving from a monthly retainer to working on a project fee basis - which, he says, resulted in him earning less money despite working “all waking hours of a day”.
Garcia continued to work with Pete until 2023. After he communicated some of his grievances to a make-up artist who was also on Pete’s team, the rapper “drunkenly FaceTimed” Garcia. On that call, he says, he “expressed his belief he was being underpaid for the amount of hours actually asked of him”. He claims “they reached an ‘understanding’”, with Pete confirming “we're good”. However, Roc Nation then contacted him shortly before a scheduled gig and informed him that his services were no longer required.
Neither Pete nor Roc Nation have as yet commented on the lawsuit.