Chris Brown has filed a $500 million defamation lawsuit against Warner Bros Discovery over last year’s documentary ‘Chris Brown: A History Of Violence’, accusing the media company of knowingly including false allegations in the programme that he drugged and raped a woman in 2020 at a yacht party hosted by Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs.
Warner Bros Discovery and production company Ample Entertainment promoted and published “false information in their pursuit of likes, clicks, downloads and dollars”, the lawsuit claims, all to the detriment of Brown, and despite knowing the programme “was full of lies and deception”, and that its production “violated basic journalistic principles”.
The unnamed woman who accuses Brown of rape in the documentary also filed a lawsuit against the musician in 2022 making the same allegations. However, Brown’s legal filing states, that “frivolous civil lawsuit” was dismissed after his accuser’s claims were “determined to be entirely fabricated”, in part after “a Miami Beach police detective uncovered text messages ... that exposed her dishonesty”.
“To put it simply”, Brown’s lawsuit continues, “this case is about the media putting their own profits over the truth”. They did this, it adds, “after being provided proof that their information was false” and that “their storytelling ‘Jane Doe’ had been discredited over and over”.
After the documentary’s release last October, The Guardian reported that ‘Chris Brown: A History Of Violence’ is “as advertised: not an investigation, but a collated history of public allegations that have never stopped Brown’s career”.
It covers numerous alleged incidents of violent behaviour by Brown over the years, including - of course - his assault of then girlfriend Rihanna during the Grammy Weekend of 2009. The programme then, The Guardian added, “attempts to posit why Brown has prevailed relatively unscathed by the ‘cancel culture’ he has frequently decried”.
It’s the allegation of sexual assault as recently as 2020 that has clearly angered Brown, whose lawsuit says that the documentary set out to rehash “past mistakes” and then enhance its narrative with false statements. “Mr Brown has never been found guilty of any sex related crime”, the lawsuit adds, “but this documentary states in every available fashion that he is a serial rapist and sexual abuser”.
That portrayal, the lawsuit concludes, has “caused significant harm to Mr Brown’s reputation, career and business opportunities”. He is seeking $500 million in damages, some of which he has pledged to donate to organisations supporting survivors of sexual abuse.
As well as Ample Entertainment and Warner Bros Discovery - which is not connected to the Warner music company - Brown’s unnamed accuser is also listed as a defendant on the defamation lawsuit, as are various other people who appear in the documentary.