{"id":2369,"date":"2026-06-17T19:38:30","date_gmt":"2026-06-17T19:38:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=2369"},"modified":"2026-06-17T19:38:30","modified_gmt":"2026-06-17T19:38:30","slug":"the-tell-author-amy-griffin-sues-former-classmate-who-accused-her-of-poaching-story","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=2369","title":{"rendered":"‘The Tell’ author Amy Griffin sues former classmate who accused her of poaching story"},"content":{"rendered":"
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By ANDREW DALTON, Associated Press<\/strong><\/p>\n

LOS ANGELES\u00a0 \u2014 Author Amy Griffin sued a former classmate for defamation on Monday, labeling as false in \u201cevery element\u201d the woman\u2019s allegation that Griffin appropriated her stories of sexual abuse for the bestselling 2025 memoir \u201cThe Tell.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Griffin\u2019s lawsuit, filed in federal court in Nevada, says that in 2025 her former middle school classmate \u201ctold the New York Times \u2014 and through it, the world \u2014 that Amy Griffin is a fraud and a thief.\u201d<\/p>\n

The lawsuit says that in the woman\u2019s telling, \u201cMrs. Griffin stole the rape of another woman and built a bestseller on it.\u201d<\/p>\n

A Times spokesperson said the lawsuit misrepresents its story and reporting. The former classmate, who has filed her own lawsuit, said her account will prove true in court.<\/p>\n

In \u201cThe Tell,\u201d a hit that became an Oprah\u2019s Book Club selection, Griffin recounts being sexually abused as a child by a teacher at her middle school in Amarillo, Texas, and writes that years later she recovered memories of the experience by undergoing therapy using the psychedelic drug MDMA.<\/p>\n

Griffin, 49, grew up in a wealthy family that owned a chain of convenience stores. She began her career in the marketing department of Sports Illustrated. She married a hedge fund manager in 2003, had four children and started a venture capital firm. \u201cThe Tell\u201d is her first book.<\/p>\n

Upon its publication in March 2025, she went on a book tour in which she was interviewed by celebrities, including Sheryl Sandberg at the Menlo Park bookstore Kepler\u2019s.<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n

The Times story published six months after the book included stories from a classmate who said some of the experiences Griffin described were eerily similar to her own. Then in March the woman filed a lawsuit in California state court, which Griffin is seeking to have dismissed.<\/p>\n

The Associated Press doesn\u2019t typically name people who say they have been sexually abused unless they come forward publicly or otherwise consent. The woman who sued Griffin filed her lawsuit as Jane Doe, and her name did not appear in the Times story.<\/p>\n

Griffin says documentation backs her in every aspect<\/h4>\n

Griffin\u2019s lawsuit says the most essential fact is that she put her account of her abuse in writing in 2020, and in 2021 she provided another detailed and documented account in an interview with the Amarillo Police Department. Both accounts match up with the book, and both came before Griffin is alleged to have extracted the woman\u2019s abuse story by having someone posing as a talent agent call her in 2022, according to the lawsuit. The statute of limitations prevented the criminal investigation from moving forward.<\/p>\n

Griffin\u2019s lawsuit says Jane Doe falsely claimed to be another middle school classmate who appears in \u201cThe Tell\u201d under the pseudonym \u201cClaudia.\u201d The lawsuit says Griffin had not talked to Jane Doe in more than 35 years and was demonstrably not in the Palm Springs area in 2019, when the woman claims the two of them met for coffee.<\/p>\n

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\n<\/div>\n

\u201cAmy Griffin\u2019s accuser has had every opportunity to set the record straight,\u201d Griffin\u2019s lawyer Tom Clare said in a statement to the AP on Tuesday. \u201cThis lawsuit\u2019s purpose is to make the truth known. The New York Times knowingly promoted her false allegations and must also be held accountable.\u201d<\/p>\n

Accuser says this is an attempt to silence her<\/h4>\n

In an email to The Associated Press sent through her lawyers, the woman said the shame and humiliation from her sexual assault were unimaginable and she was \u201cviolated all over again after reading about my own experiences in Amy\u2019s book.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDespite trying to remain anonymous, Amy has now chosen to use her immense wealth and influence to try and silence me,\u201d the email said. \u201cShe has had her lawyers identify me publicly as well as sue me. I am shocked and disappointed that she would choose to take this route, especially since she herself knows the truth.\u201d<\/p>\n

Griffin\u2019s attorneys said in filings that the woman\u2019s attorneys gave them her name \u2014 which they have used unredacted in exhibits that they\u2019ve shared \u2014 and have not proceeded with the case anonymously under California law.<\/p>\n

Griffin\u2019s lawsuit seeks a declaration that the allegations that she stole the woman\u2019s abuse stories are false, along with financial damages to be determined at trial.<\/p>\n

New York Times stands by its reporting and story<\/h4>\n

Griffin\u2019s lawsuit, while not naming the Times as a defendant, is harshly critical of the paper, saying it \u201cdeemed the story too good to scrutinize\u201d despite Griffin\u2019s lawyers making it clear the woman\u2019s account was \u201cdemonstrably false.\u201d<\/p>\n

Times spokesperson Danielle Rhoades Ha said in an email to the AP that the lawsuit and related filings \u201crepeatedly misrepresent The New York Times story and its reporting,\u201d and that the article \u201cis markedly different in key aspects put forth\u201d in both women\u2019s lawsuits.<\/p>\n

Rhoades points out that many of the allegations Griffin is pushing back against did not appear in the Times\u2019 story, including that the woman they spoke to was \u201cClaudia,\u201d or that a person posing as a talent agent on Griffin\u2019s behalf called to get her stories of abuse.<\/p>\n

And Rhoades said the Times story did not say Griffin \u201cmisappropriated\u201d the woman\u2019s story, and she said claims that the reporters did not vet their story are false, and that they \u201cengaged extensively with Ms. Griffin\u2019s legal representatives prior to publication including meticulous fact checking.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOur story was about a publishing phenomenon, the reliability of memories recovered while under the influence of MDMA and the impact of a bestselling memoir on the author\u2019s hometown,\u201d Rhoades said. \u201cOur reporters\u2019 only agenda was to pursue the facts, including corroboration of accounts from all sources.\u201d<\/p>\n

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In \u201cThe Tell,\u201d a hit that became an Oprah\u2019s Book Club selection, Griffin recounts being sexually abused as a child by a teacher at her middle school.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2368,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2369","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-things-to-do"],"yoast_head":"\n‘The Tell’ author Amy Griffin sues former classmate who accused her of poaching story - Next City Digest<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=2369\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"‘The Tell’ author Amy Griffin sues former classmate who accused her of poaching story - 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