14 DAY TRIAL // Pop star Kesha, formerly known as Ke$ha, kicked off the year 2014 by checking herself into a rehabilitation facility to seek professional help for emotional issues, eating disorders, and drug and alcohol abuse.
Her mother later revealed to the media that most of these problems stemmed from her disastrous relationship with her producer Dr. Luke, who was in cahoots with her manager and had found a way to control her (and her career) by keeping her self-esteem low and her drugged up.
Kesha is now striking back at the producer, filing a lawsuit that documents the alleged abuse she was a victim of for years in a row, in a bid to convince a judge to let her out of her contract.
Kesha makes shocking claims of physical abuse and assault, addiction
Dr. Luke is the person credited for getting Kesha’s career off the ground, after he discovered her by chance when she was only 18. You know how these stories go. Well, in her case, she alleges in court documents obtained by TMZ, the fairytale turned into a nightmare shortly after she signed with Dr. Luke, because he started making passes at her right away.
In almost no time, he was provided with the opportunity to force himself on her, as they took their first plane ride together. He drugged her up and raped her – and the pop star vouches that this wasn’t the only time when she would be abused in this way.
In fact, she alleges, Dr. Luke would often use drugs and booze as a means to get her to stop resisting him, and would then do with her as he pleased. She recalls one particular incident in which she boarded a plane with Dr. Luke and woke up the next morning in his bed, feeling “sick and sore” and with no memory of how she got there.
He would also beat her up when she would give him lip: the star says she once ran away barefoot from his home and hid in the mountains after one such episode.
She asks to be granted distance from her producer
According to the court documents, Dr. Luke would always tell Kesha that she was “not that pretty, not that talented, just lucky to have [him].” He also called her “a fat [expletive]-ing refrigerator” and would never stop trying to make her feel as if she owed him everything for the good things happening in her career.
After years of abuse, Kesha explains that she’s going public with this sordid story because she wants the judge to grant her protection from such a vile man – and she insists that said protection comes with the promise of distance between them, which, in turn, can only happen if she’s no longer bound to him on a professional level.
“This lawsuit is 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,” her attorney Mark Geragos says.
“The facts presented in our lawsuit paint a picture of a man who is controlling and willing to commit horrible acts of abuse in an attempt to intimidate an impressionable, talented, young female artist into submission for his personal gain. Kesha is focused on moving her life and her career beyond this terrible time,” the lawyer adds.
Kesha is yet to file a complaint against Dr. Luke with the police
And here’s where things really get tricky. As various voices have already pointed online, for all the abuse Kesha has suffered at the hands of Dr. Luke, she is yet to file a complaint against him with the police. As per her own words, this is a man who drugged her and got her drunk, who raped and beat her, who constantly undermined her self-esteem.
He was so vicious towards her that she developed an eating disorder and turned to self-harm in a misguided attempt at taking control over her life. By all counts, Dr. Luke should be in jail. But all she wants is for him to let her out of her contract with him.
Until Kesha speaks up on this, the rumors that she’s vilifying Dr. Luke in the press only because she wants out of a bad contract will not go away, you can count on it.