Tyler Perry is the latest celebrity who could find himself in the courtroom hot seat to fight against sexual assault. Derek Dixon, one of the actors in the media mogul's White House drama "The Oval," has accused Perry of sexual assault, sexual harassment, and retaliation in a $260 million lawsuit filed June 13 in Los Angeles Superior Court, according to Deadline.
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The two first met in 2019 when Dixon was working for an event company. He met Perry at a party for his Atlanta studio, and the producer hired him for additional parties, according to Variety.
After accepting a role from Perry, Dixon became a regular in the sixth season of "The Oval" and its spinoff "Ruthless." He claims that Perry promised him career advancement and creative opportunities. Instead, the actor found himself a victim of unwanted sexual advances and professional retaliation when he did not reciprocate Perry's attention, according to The Independent.
The suit also alleges that in January 2020, before he was cast for "The Oval," Dixon was invited to Perry's Atlanta home and went in hopes of building a professional relationship with the producer. Instead, after the two drank too much, Dixon ended up sleeping in the guest room of Perry's home. While in bed, allegedly Perry got in with him and started to touch his thighs, and though Dixon rejected his advances, he claims that Perry sexually assaulted him again on two different occasions, per TMZ.
Dixon left "The Oval" during the show's final season, which, he claims, cost him $400,000, according to PEOPLE. After leaving, he claims he was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), per PEOPLE.
TMZ has acquired screenshots of some of the alleged text messages from Tyler Perry to Dixon. Some of the texts from Perry read:
"I feel so good. But I don't like being horny. I feel sorry for the first person that flirts with me."
"I would hope that you would let someone hold you and make love to you. You are missing the best years of your life, my friend. Trust me. I hope you get past that block in your mind."
These screenshots have already blown up on X, formerly Twitter, with some users disturbed by their content:
"The second most jarring part of those Tyler Perry screenshots is how eerily similar it sounded to his screenplay writing," posted one user. To which another user agreed in the replies, saying, "That's how I knew the Tyler Perry texts were very likely to be 100% real."
"Having been a victim of an old, predatory, gay man, those Tyler Perry texts are very familiar. He most definitely did that s***," wrote another user.
"Tyler Perry is an aggressive texter. I would've immediately blocked his a**," wrote another user.
However, fans of Tyler Perry have come out in his defence and support:
"There's nothing in those leaked texts from Tyler Perry. His name is getting dragged through the mud and over what exactly? Smh," posted another.
"Reading those texts between that guy [Derek Dixon] and Tyler Perry it made me sad. I think Tyler needs some friends. He seems lonely, and he trusted Derek Dixon to be a friend, and he turned on him smh. None of these texts were harassment smh desperate for money," wrote another.
"As a person who has developed a relationship with an old boss, I'm not going against Tyler Perry. Dixon was probably X-rated over the phone and in person, but as innocent as can be in them text messages," wrote another.
Like fans on X who believe Dixon is only out for money, Matthew Boyd, an attorney for the media mogul, said in a statement to PEOPLE that Dixon "...is an individual who got close to Tyler Perry for what now appears to be nothing more than setting up a scam... we are confident these fabricated claims of harassment will fail."
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