Shannon Sharpe Sued For $50 Mill Over Alleged Sexual Assault, Battery

Shannon Sharpe is facing an eight figure lawsuit after a woman has accused him of sexually violating her during their two-year “rocky consensual relationship.”

The 13-page civil complaint was filed in a Nevada state court on Sunday (April 20), NBC Sports reports. The Hall of Fame tight end is being accused of committing assault, sexual assault, battery, and sexual battery, and that he engaged in the intentional infliction of emotional distress. The complaint also alleges Sharpe recorded their sexual activities and shared the videos with others against the Jane Doe’s knowledge.

The plaintiff is seeking a minimum of $50 million from Sharpe.

According to the suit, Doe met Sharpe in 2023 at a gym in Los Angeles and she is “a woman more than thirty years younger than he is.” She claims the Club Shay Shay host started calling, texting and “demanding she come to his Beverly Glen mansion.” Although she described their interactions were controlling and verbally abusive, Doe says they ultimately entered a consensual relationship.

“He demanded complete control over her time and body, expecting her to be at his house on his schedule, at his command, whenever he called,” attorney Tony Buzbee wrote in Doe’s suit.

In September 2024, Sharpe made headlines after he accidentally went Live on Instagram while he was having sex with a woman. The suit contends that it was another woman, not the plaintiff, in the Live, and this is when Doe “began to pull away from Sharpe.”

“Plaintiff tried sharing her location with friends from her iPhone — just in case,” the docs state. “But Sharpe saw her doing this. The moment he realized what she was doing, he grabbed her by the neck and told her, ‘If you ever do that again, I will f***ing kill you.’”

The complaint alleges that the plaintiff’s attempts to distance herself from Sharpe led him responding with sexual abuse. She alleges he “forced himself on her while she was crying and sobbing” during an interaction in October 2024. In January 2025, Doe claims Sharpe came over to her house and violently sexually assaulted her again after using the excuse of bringing a birthday gift to her.

The first page of the complaint expresses the weight of saying “no” to a sexual encounter, and how Sharpe allegedly did not comply with the plaintiff’s boundaries. “A woman can say ‘yes’ to consensual sexual relations with a man ninety-nine times, but when she says ‘no’ even once, that ‘no’ means no. Defendant Shannon Sharpe, a man who is accustomed to getting what he wants, completely fails to understand this basic concept. After many months of manipulating and controlling Plaintiff — a woman more than thirty years younger than he — and repeatedly threatening to brutally choke and violently slap her, Sharpe refused to accept the answer no and raped Plaintiff, despite her sobbing and repeated screams of ‘no.’”