Editors note: This story contains accounts of sexual assault. If you or someone you know is a survivor of sexual assault, contact the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-4673 or at https://www.rainn.org.
Two women filed lawsuits against former heavyweight boxing champion George Foreman, saying the 73-year-old sexually abused them in the 1970s.
There are two separate lawsuits filed in the Los Angeles County Superior Court by the two women who used pseudonyms of Gwen H. and Denise F.
Foreman isn’t explicitly named; instead, the lawsuits refer to him as “DOE 1.” However, he was identified as the lawsuits noted that he was the professional boxer who beat Joe Frazier to become the heavyweight champion in the world in 1973, and who lost the title to Muhammad Ali in ’74.
He continues to deny the sexual abuse allegations. He previously denied the claims when they became public last month. Foreman released a statement following this week’s lawsuits.
“Over the past six months, two women have been trying to extort millions of dollars each from me and my family,” he said in a statement, via ESPN. “I don’t pick fights, but I don’t run away from them either.”
The women want to take the lawsuits to a jury trial, and they both seek an unknown amount in damages.
The two women, who are now in their early 60s, detailed what occurred in the 70s between them and Foreman. They both knew the professional boxer through their fathers, who were boxing associates of his.
Denise F. notes in her lawsuit that Foreman had groomed her since she was 8 years old. Then, he raped her when she was 15 years old, under the legal age of consent. The incident occurred in a San Francisco hotel room, Denise said.
“At all relevant times, Plaintiff was a minor of approximately 13-16 years old and had no ability or legal capacity to consent to the aforementioned sexual acts,” the lawsuit states, according to People.
Gwen H. shared a similar story, noting that she met the boxer when she was 9 years old. Foreman then “sexually abused and raped her” several times at the ages of 15 and 16, when she was also under the legal age of consent. One of the occurrences happened in a Beverly Hills apartment, she says.
According to The New York Times, Gwen, whose father was an adviser to Foreman, added that the boxer threatened his job if she told anyone about the incidents, saying, “You don’t want your dad to lose his job, do you?”
The two women waited to file the lawsuits until a 2020 California law opened the statute of limitations that prevented some childhood sexual abuse survivors from previously filing civil lawsuits.
