Warner Music Group has responded to an interview on the BBC's The Next Episode podcast in which Lily Allen alleged she had been sexually assaulted by an industry executive in 2016, and that Warner had failed to act.
In the interview, published this morning, Allen said that after writing about her alleged assault in her 2018 memoir, My Thoughts Exactly, she met with WMG CEO of recorded music Max Lousada at a restaurant. During that conversation, she says Lousada told her he had no idea about the incident until he had read about it in her book, which had been published a month prior.
The Next Episode host, Miquita Oliver, then asked the singer, "Did he say, ‘Now that we know, boy are we going to do something about it?’" Allen laughed and responded, "No."
Allen is signed to Warner's Parlophone label. In the interview, she also said that her career "has been fucked with as a result of talking about this stuff."
Now, Lousada has responded in an internal memo, obtained by Billboard, which reads in part, "I want everyone to know that we take allegations of sexual misconduct extremely seriously, and in situations where they’ve been made about Warner employees, we’ve quickly investigated and taken action. The BBC piece does not say that the person involved is our employee and we understand that he wasn’t and isn’t."
Read the full memo below.
We wanted to talk to you about today’s BBC podcast with Lily Allen. Her account of an assault that took place in 2016 is deeply disturbing and obviously an appalling thing to have happened. Behavior like that has no place in our industry.
I want everyone to know that we take allegations of sexual misconduct extremely seriously, and in situations where they’ve been made about Warner employees, we’ve quickly investigated and taken action.
The BBC piece does not say that the person involved is our employee and we understand that he wasn’t and isn’t.
While there’s a robust process in place when it comes to our employees, we need to improve how we handle situations involving an artist and a person who’s not an employee. We’re going to listen and learn from this experience, and take concrete steps so we do better in future.
Please, if you ever hear of anything like this, you must raise it through official channels, such as your manager or HR. You can also call the Compliance hotline anonymously or refer to our Code of Conduct.
Best,
Max
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