WARNING: Contents of this article contain descriptions of alleged sexual assault(s) and graphic details
By Jack Wannan & Brandon Thurston
A new affidavit filed by Janel Grant offers a first-person perspective of her claims against Vince McMahon & WWE.
Grant, who alleges she was sex trafficked by McMahon and WWE during her time with the company from 2019 to 2022, released a 40-page document on Wednesday evening, recounting her experience.
The sworn affidavit goes beyond her lengthy lawsuit filed earlier. The former WWE employee asserts new details about her claims of physical and emotional abuse, a suicide attempt, more about her interactions with Brock Lesnar, further allegations of assault by McMahon and John Laurinaitis, and claims that WWE President Nick Khan would help her get a new job using his media connections.
“I felt used, leveraged, humiliated, shamed, dehumanized, intimidated, and exploited for the business and the sexual gratification of these men,” she said in the new filing.
McMahon has repeatedly denied the allegations made by Grant in the lawsuit since it was initially filed in 2024.
Grant contends in the new filing that the significant duress she was under caused her to sign a non-disclosure agreement (NDA), which she hadn’t properly reviewed. The NDA includes a clause directing any further disputes to go to arbitration, a mediation process that keeps disputes out of the public eye.
Grant’s new affidavit was filed in support of the argument that her case should stay in court.
‘I could not escape from him at work or home’
As previously described in her initial complaint, Grant was hired to work in WWE’s legal department in 2019 after a meeting with McMahon, who lived in the same condominium as her. Encounters between them are alleged to have become sexual early on, with McMahon putting “his hand in my pants” during a meeting on May 11, 2019. Grant says she doesn’t remember much else from that meeting, as she blacked out.
A week later, Grant says a “full sexual encounter” with McMahon took place, where he told her, “Please don’t stop this.” Grant described feeling even further trapped in her relationship with McMahon at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, as they both were working from home in the same building.
“Vince had unlimited access to me to act on his sexual impulses on any day, at any time. I could not escape from him at work or home,” she said.
On May 9, 2020, Grant recalls being “forced to participate in a threesome with Vince and his ‘friend,'” in which she was defecated on. Later that year, Grant alleges she was once again being forced into a threesome, that time with McMahon and John Laurinaitis.
Laurinaitis was originally named as a co-defendant in the lawsuit, but was dropped from the case last year after agreeing to cooperate and provide evidence.
Grant remembers feeling threatened when Nick Khan was appointed President of WWE in August 2020, claiming that he was a close ally of McMahon who had knowledge of their relationship.
“In hindsight, I view Nick’s arrival as the moment that my life changed for the worse,” Grant writes. “My fears about reporting the abuse were realized when I learned from Vince that he put the company’s new President, essentially his second in command, on notice of his ongoing sexual conduct with me.”
WWE and TKO representatives did not immediately respond to a request from POST Wrestling to respond to Grant’s comments.
Grant was transferred to WWE’s talent relations department by 2021, a move she claims took place after McMahon said that he had spoken privately with Khan and Brad Blum about the “sexual nature” of their relationship.
“Vince revealed that he and WWE leadership determined that I was a corporate liability,” she said.
The move to WWE’s talent relations side brought Grant closer to John Laurinaitis, whom she had already alleged to have been in sexual contact with through McMahon. She remembers being told that work under Laurinaitis would be a “work hard and play hard” environment.
As previously mentioned in a complaint filed by Grant before, she says she was instructed on numerous instances to visit the hotel of Laurinaitis and “serve myself to him as ‘breakfast.'” She claims this happened at least five times.
As the year progressed, Grant says she continued to be forced into sexual encounters. She recalls being raped in June by McMahon and Laurinaitis. A month later, Grant alleges she was sexually assaulted by McMahon and Laurinaitis, getting “sandwiched” between them and groped.
We contacted representatives for McMahon and Laurinaitis separately for comment. Neither has responded at the time of publication.
Later that month, she recalls being brought to an office in WWE headquarters where she was offered “sexually” to an unnamed WWE talent. “I later escorted this talent out of HQ before any harm could happen,” she said.
The trauma Grant says she endured from her job caused her to attempt suicide in April 2021, per the new affidavit.
“I often cried and suffered physical side effects, including bleeding, swelling, bruising, and incontinence.”
‘I was expected to perform sexually for Brock … [and] travel to other states to do so’
The new affidavit also shed light on Grant’s communications with WWE wrestler Brock Lesnar, who was previously identified as someone whom McMahon allegedly trafficked her to, though they never met in-person.
Grant previously alleged that McMahon offered sexual services from Grant to Lesnar, who was re-negotiating a WWE deal in July 2021. Grant recalls there being numerous instances where a sexual encounter with Lesnar was set up, but didn’t happen for a variety of reasons. Some were circumstantial, like a snowstorm or Lesnar being too drunk to meet up. Other dates were side-stepped by Grant, who says she was looking for a way out of each instance.
The filings explain that McMahon once “mercilessly” beat Grant to “prepare” her for what it would be like to have sex with Lesnar. Another time, McMahon allegedly used a sex toy on Grant, which he said he would later send to Lesnar, although she notes that it’s unclear if he ever actually did.
In late 2021, Grant was contacted via text message by Lesnar, who identified himself as “Polish Joe.” Lesnar allegedly asked for a nude photo and expressed a desire for her to travel to Chicago, where Monday Night Raw was being taped that evening.
“I now understood that I would not only be expected to perform sexually for Brock, but I would also be expected to travel to other states to do so,” she said.
Grant also claims that Lesnar knew about her position in WWE amid their sexual contact.
“Brock told me that he was already aware that I worked for WWE … When I began to talk about Talent Relations, he suddenly reacted with rage, expressing both that he hates Talent Relations, especially Johnny, and that he thought I was working in the legal department.”
Lesnar did not immediately respond to a request to comment from POST Wrestling sent on Thursday afternoon.
‘I felt trapped in a system of exploitation’
Grant’s exit from the company started back in January 2022, per the new affidavit, when she claims McMahon said an anonymous source was leaking info about their relationship. Grant said she worried about this source possibly having explicit material of her, and remembers being told by McMahon that details about their relationship being known would hurt his career and life.
Grant says WWE was willing to help her with the next step in her career, with McMahon and Nick Khan even being “ready to ‘re-home’ me at a company like NBC or ESPN, and Nick would be the one making the call to their contacts there.”
But an impasse during her exit came from the hesitance to sign a non-disclosure agreement. McMahon put pressure on Grant to sign, saying he would be “double-fucked” if an NDA wasn’t reached, she recalled.
“I interpreted Vince’s words on the recording as an explicit threat of ‘sign it or else’ on a deadline that backed me into a corner,” she said.
Grant’s exit from WWE caused significant stress, she said, including the return of suicidal ideation.
“I felt I was trapped in a system of exploitation, where anyone could weaponize information about me and blackmail me … I became suicidal and considered jumping to my death to avoid the hell my life was about to become,” she said.
A back-and-forth over the contract ended with Grant eventually signing an NDA, one which had a clause that meant any lawsuit filed after the fact would have to go to arbitration, which WWE is currently pursuing in the case.
Grant argues that the state of stress she was under during this period made it so that she has no recollection of major parts of the process.
“I have no memories of the arbitration clause. I do not remember discussing it with either Vince or my attorney. I do not recall reviewing it. I do not recall either McDevitt or my attorney making revisions to it. I was in an extreme state of distress, sleep deprivation, and fear throughout the entirety of the NDA period, including during the drafting of the arbitration provision. I do not recall agreeing to arbitrate.”
A week after Grant signed the NDA, she recalls being forced to have oral sex with McMahon in his condo. Grant submitted her resignation from WWE on February 10, and had her last day set for March 4 by the company’s HR department. Grant alleges that Lesnar would continue to contact her until March 27.