Former heavyweight boxing champ George Foreman is being sued by two women who say he groomed them when they were children and raped them when they were teenagers in the 1970s. The women, who are both in their early 60s, filed the lawsuit in Los Angeles Superior Court Wednesday, using the pseudonyms Gwen H. and Denise S., the New York Times reports. They said they met Foreman through their fathers, who worked with the boxer, and he raped them multiple times in various locations when they were 15 years old.
The lawsuits—which seek upward of $25 million in damages for sexual battery and intentional infliction of emotional distress, according to the Hollywood Reporter—name the 73-year-old Foreman as "DOE 1," but the description of the defendant is that of somebody who defeated Joe Frazier for the heavyweight championship in 1973. In Gwen H.'s lawsuit, she says her father was a longtime Foreman adviser. She says the boxer brought her to his apartment and threatened to fire her father if she didn't do what he wanted. "DOE then instructed Plaintiff to remove her clothes," the lawsuit states. "Feeling the duress and coercion of this threat, Plaintiff complied with DOE’s commands.”
Foreman, 73, "adamantly and categorically" denied the allegations in a statement issued last month. "Over the past six months, two women have been trying to extort millions of dollars each from me and my family. They are falsely claiming that I sexually abused them over 45 years ago in the 1970s," he said. "I will work with my lawyers to fully and truthfully expose my accusers’ scheme and defend myself in court. I don’t pick fights, but I don’t run away from them either." The lawsuits were filed under a California amendment that extends the staute of limitations for victims of childhood sexual abuse. In June, a jury ruled against Bill Cosby in a lawsuit filed under the amendment, which expires at the end of this year. (More George Foreman stories.)
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