2 lawsuits have been filed against boxing legend George Foreman for sexually assaulting two minors in the 1970s.
According to the Hollywood Reporter, two women filed a pair of lawsuits in a Los Angeles Superior Court on Wednesday, August 24. The women allege that Foreman had sex with both of them while they were between the ages of 13 and 16.
Both women say that their fathers worked with Foreman while he was a professional boxer. The women, who filed the lawsuit under pseudonyms say that Foreman began grooming them from the first time they met him. Both women filed the lawsuits under pseudonym’s. Foreman’s name was even listed as a Doe defendant but is identified as a boxer who beat Joe Frazier in 1973 for the World Heavyweight Championship.
One woman, who is going by the pseudonym Denise S., says that she met Foreman when she was 8 and started grooming her since she was a child. She claims that when she was 13, Foreman called her home in Hayward, CA and asked her if she knew how to masturbate and went on to tell her how to masturbate her self. She says that the former boxer then raped her multiple times in 1976.
“When Plaintiff was 13 years old, Doe called Plaintiff at her home in Hayward, California and asked Plaintiff if she knew how to masturbate. During the call, Doe gave plaintiff instructions on how to masturbate herself,” the lawsuit reads.
The other woman, who is going by the pseudonym Gwen H. says that Foreman invited her to his apartment when she was 15 and that her dad was a very good friend of him. She claims that Foreman threatened to fire her dad if she did not have sex with him, and raped her until she was 16.
“DOE threatened that if she didn’t comply, her dad would lose his job. DOE then instructed Plaintiff to remove her clothes. Feeling the duress and coercion of this threat, Plaintiff complied with DOE’s commands,” the lawsuit stated.
Foreman has since denied the allegations. In a statement, he stated: “Over the past six months, two women have been trying to extort millions of dollars each from me and my family,” he said in a statement. “They are falsely claiming that I sexually abused them over 45 years ago in the 1970s. I adamantly and categorically deny these allegations. The pride I take in my reputation means as much to me as my sports accomplishments, and I will not be intimidated by baseless threats and lies. I am, and always will be, guided by my faith and trust in God. I will work with my lawyers to fully and truthfully expose my accusers’ scheme and defend myself in court. I don’t pick fights, but I don’t run away from them either.”
