UPDATE: Dr. Luke (born Lukasz Gottwald) is countersuing Kesha (Kesha Rose Sebert), TMZ reports. He claims that the singer’s allegations are lies, and that her mother and new management firm are behind an effort to extort him. The producer claims to have had a copy of the pop star’s lawsuit for months, and that she was threatening to file it if he didn’t release her from her recording contract. Gottwald’s lawyer, Christine Lepera, told TMZ that Sebert’s lawsuit is part of “a campaign of publishing outrageous and untrue statements.”
ORIGINAL POST: As contentious as the relationship between Kesha (born Kesha Rose Sebert) and her frequent writer/producer Dr. Luke (Lukasz Gottwald) was already known to be, the relationship between the two collaborators has entered frightening criminal territory. As TMZ reports, Sebert recently filed a lawsuit against Gottwald, alleging a history of emotional, physical, and sexual abuse at the hands of the musical svengali:
Kesha claims Dr. Luke was abusive towards her almost from the get-go — when she signed on with him at 18 — and made repeated sexual advances toward her. She claims he would force her to use drugs and alcohol to remove her defenses.
In one instance, Kesha claims he forced her to snort something before getting on a plane … and during the trip he forced himself on her while she was drugged.
On another occasion, Kesha claims after forcing her to drink with him, Dr. Luke gave her what he called “sober pills.” Kesha claims she woke up the following afternoon, naked in Dr. Luke’s bed, sore, sick … and with no memory of how she got there.
It only gets worse from there, with the lawsuit apparently detailing the repeated verbal abuse Gottwald hurled at Sebert (allegedly calling her, “A fat fucking refrigerator”) and the physical attacks he allegedly made on her (including “violently thrashing his arms” at her in his Malibu house, forcing her to flee to the mountains). The suit asks that Kesha be let out of her contract with Gottwald.
In a statement made to TMZ, Sebert’s lawyer Marc Geragos calls the suit a “a wholehearted effort by Kesha to regain control of her music career and her personal freedom after suffering for ten years as a victim of mental manipulation, emotional abuse and an instance of sexual assault at the hands of Dr. Luke.”
No statement has been issued yet from Gottwald in response.
