A judge has ruled that Richard Simmons must pay a tabloid $130K for saying he is transgender even though he is not.
Back in May of 2017, Simmons filed a libel and invasion of privacy lawsuit against American Media, the company that owns the National Enquirer and Radar Online.
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The suit stemmed from allegations by the tabloids that Simmons had “undergone shocking sex surgery to change from a man to a woman,” which he vehemently denied.
A judge dismissed the case on grounds that being misidentified as transgender “does not expose ‘any person to hatred, contempt, ridicule, or obloquy, or which causes him to be shunned or avoided, or which has a tendency to injure him in his occupation.’”
Essentially, this means that it does not fall into a “defamation” category, as reported by Yahoo.
The money that Simmons is paying out is for court costs and American Media’s attorney fees.
Simmons has been the subject of several rumors over the last year, but it seems like the fitness guru is doing really well and he took to social media to thank some important people for their help.
Simmons took to Facebook to share his immense gratitude for the “wonderful” staff at Cedars Sinai Medical Center, where he was admitted in 2017 for severe indigestion.
He also gave a shout-out to the LAPD for escorting him through the deluge of cameras that were waiting for him when he returned home.
The 69-year-old first started having troubles in early 2017 when the Missing Richard Simmons podcast debuted, purporting that he’d been “missing” for over 1,000 days.
The host, Dan Taberski, presented three possible explanations as to why the pop-culture personality, the most intriguing of which is that the 68-year-old is essentially being held captive by his live-in housekeeper.
This theory was supported by Mauro Oliveira, Simmons’ friend, and former masseuse.
After several people came to his defense and made statements to explain that Simmons simply wanted to a break from the limelight, the pop culture icon finally came out of reclusion to set the record straight and his social media presence has been a top priority ever since.
“Aren’t you sick of hearing and reading about me?! LOL Well by now you know that I’m not ‘missing’, just a little under the weather,” Simmons said in another post. “I’m sure I will be feeling good and back home in a couple of days.”
