The R&B star Chris Brown is suing the media conglomerate Warner Bros Discovery for $500m (£406m) for making defamatory claims against him in the 2024 documentary Chris Brown: A History of Violence, Rolling Stone reports.
Released in October, the documentary addressed the allegations of misconduct and sexual assault against Brown. It features a Jane Doe who sued him for allegedly drugging and assaulting her at a party in 2020 on Sean “Diddy” Combs’s yacht (the case was dismissed without prejudice). In 2009, Brown assaulted his then-girlfriend Rihanna before the Grammy awards.
The film additionally details Brown smashing a window at Good Morning America in 2011, allegedly throwing a brick through his mother’s windscreen in 2013, punching a female fan in 2016 and allegations of verbal and physical abuse and death threats by another ex-girlfriend, Karrueche Tran.
Brown was also sued by his ex-manager in 2016, who said Brown punched him multiple times in the head and neck; they settled out of court in 2019. In July, four concertgoers claimed Brown and his entourage “attacked and brutally beat” them after a concert, and are awaiting trial.
The suit by Brown, filed in Los Angeles superior court, accuses Discovery and production company Ample Entertainment of “promoting and publishing false information in their pursuit of likes, clicks, downloads and dollars and to the detriment” of Brown despite “knowing that it was full of lies and deception and violating basic journalist principles.”
The Guardian has contacted Ample Entertainment for comment. A spokesperson for ID, the Warner Bros docuseries arm, said: “We stand behind the production and will vigorously defend ourselves against this lawsuit.”
The Jane Doe is also named as a defendant and her prior suit is described as “frivolous”. “To put it simply, this case is about the media putting their own profits over the truth,” the suit claims. “They did so after being provided proof that their information was false, and their storytelling ‘Jane Doe’ had not only been discredited over and over but was in fact a perpetrator of intimate partner violence and aggressor herself.
“Mr Brown has never been found guilty of any sex related crime … but this documentary states in every available fashion that he is a serial rapist and sexual abuser.”
“This case is about protecting the truth,” said Brown’s lawyer, Levi McCathern. “Despite being provided with evidence disproving their claims, the producers of this documentary intentionally promoted false and defamatory information, knowingly disregarding their ethical obligations as journalists.”
Despite the many allegations against him, Brown remains the second-most followed male musical artist on Instagram, with 144 million followers, and continues to sell out arenas. He released his 11th studio album, 11:11, in November 2023.
