The author of a best-selling memoir about being sexually abused as a child has been sued by a woman claiming she stole her story.
Amy Griffin’s book The Tell explores how she unearthed memories of being assaulted by a teacher in a Texas middle school in the 1980s, after she took the drug MDMA 30 years later.
Jane Doe filed a suit in California on Wednesday, saying that “The Tell constitutes neither a genuine nor harmless memoir,” The New York Times reports, and alleges that those memories are actually hers.
She specified two alleged incidents—one that involved her hands being tied behind her back with a bandanna in a bathroom at school, and another at a dance—claiming they were actually her experiences.
The Times reports that, among other allegations, Griffin has been accused of “invasion of privacy, negligence, and infliction of emotional distress.”
Doe alleged in the suit that she had borrowed a dress from Griffin for the dance, which was then stained by the teacher accused of the assault. She later returned the dress to Griffin, stained.
It comes almost a year after the book was first published.
In a separate Times article prior to the suit, the person now known as Doe said that the teacher in the book is not the same as the teacher who Griffin said abused her. The same message is repeated in the lawsuit.
Doe also claimed that she had met with Griffin in 2019 to discuss growing up in Amarillo, Texas.
The book received widespread media attention, was pushed by high-profile personalities, and was listed in Oprah Winfrey’s book club, The Times reports.
In the original article, the newspaper reported that state and local law officials said that no complaints were filed against the teacher accused in the book by Griffin, who was identifiable to locals in Texas based on her words. They also said no one else came forward after the book was published.
In a statement to the Daily Beast, Griffin’s attorney Tom Clare said, “Just like the New York Times manufactured a false narrative about Amy Griffin and The Tell, it also engineered the premise for this absurd lawsuit.
“After two New York Times reporters instigated this whole situation by bringing the book to her attention, the Plaintiff made her own choice to publicize her narrative to a global audience by acting as the principal source for (and being photographed in) a New York Times article.
“For its part, the Times took full advantage, publicizing this inaccurate narrative despite receiving many red-flag warnings. We look forward to exposing these meritless claims in court, as well as the deeply flawed New York Times reporting that is at the center of it.”
The Daily Beast has also contacted Penguin for comment.
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