Amy Griffin sues woman who said author stole her stories of rape for hit memoir ‘The Tell’
Amy Griffin attends Amy Griffin in Conversation with Mariska Hargitay about “The Tell” at Ford Foundation on March 11, 2025, in New York City. (Bryan Bedder / Getty Images for Amy Griffin) 
By Emily St. Martin Staff Writer Follow June 18, 2026 11:30 PM PT - Click here to listen to this article
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Author and venture capitalist Amy Griffin is suing the woman who accused her of stealing the woman’s stories of rape for the bestselling memoir “The Tell.”
Griffin filed a lawsuit against her former classmate for defamation on Monday, claiming that in 2025, the woman “told The New York Times — and through it, the world — that Amy Griffin is a fraud and a thief.”
According to the lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Nevada, “The Tell” recounts Griffin’s own harrowing tale of sexual abuse by a middle school teacher in Amarillo, Texas, but the former classmate claims that Griffin’s bestseller was built on stolen material — the rape of the former classmate.
The 2025 memoir garnered high praise from bestseller-inducing trifecta Oprah Winfrey, Reese Witherspoon and Jenna Bush Hager. It was an Oprah’s Book Club pick, a darling on the literary podcast circuit, hyped by Griffin’s longtime bestie Gwyneth Paltrow and included the kind of disturbing and sensational elements that would stir book clubs and group chats across the country.
And stir it did.
The Nerve columnist Maureen Callahan posted a video to YouTube titled, “Here’s Why Everyone Celebrating the New and Controversial Book ‘The Tell’ by Amy Griffin Is Wrong,” which delved into what she called the book’s “missing pieces.” On Goodreads, reviewers were divided, with some praising the book as “brave and necessary” and others writing that “something seems fishy.”
Oprah Winfrey, left, Mariska Hargitay and Amy Griffin appear onstage at an event promoting Griffin’s memoir on March 11, 2025, in New York City. (Bryan Bedder / Getty Images for Amy Griffin) In the memoir, Griffin recounts that she was undergoing an illegal form of psychedelic-drug therapy using MDMA — known on the street as ecstasy or molly — when she recovered buried memories of years-long sexual abuse at the hands of a middle school teacher that began when she was 12 and lasted for several years.
“This is the story of a secret, a secret kept for decades, one I had buried so deep I didn’t even know it was there,” Griffin writes in the memoir. “Many of us carry secrets, things that we were told not to reveal, or things we simply couldn’t, for fear of judgment or reprisal, or worst of all, for fear that if the people we love found out they’d see us differently. Sometimes we keep secrets to survive, and then a moment arrives when the usefulness of the secret expires. Keeping it becomes the thing that hurts us all. We have to tell. So what is the secret you’ve come to tell?”
The memoir hit bookstore shelves in March 2025 and spent weeks topping bestseller lists, but in September, the New York Times published a bombshell exposé that poked holes in Griffin’s account, and brought to light that Griffin and her husband, hedge fund billionaire John Griffin, invest in a company that backs MDMA.
The Food and Drug Administration formally declined to approve the drug for therapeutic use in August 2024.
“The New York Times interviewed dozens of people from Amarillo, the publishing industry and the medical and MDMA communities, along with Texas authorities, and reviewed the book proposal Ms. Griffin used to pitch her project to publishing houses,” the outlet wrote.
Among those interviews was Griffin’s classmate from more than 35 years prior, who told the outlet that she had been sexually assaulted by a different teacher in the same locations that Griffin detailed, including at the same middle school dance.
The former classmate filed her own lawsuit against Griffin in March, and used the name Jane Doe to protect her privacy. In the suit, she claims that she was contacted by someone posing as a talent agent or producer and tricked into offering “private details of her life” over the phone in 2022.
According to the former classmate, she and Griffin were classmates and belonged to the same church youth group in the late 1980s. She alleged that at a Sadie Hawkins dance, she was sexually assaulted in a closet by one of the school’s teachers and that she was wearing a dress she’d borrowed from Griffin during the assault. She claims she asked for forgiveness while at the church youth group meeting with Griffin in attendance, and returned the dress to Griffin with stains.
The March filing further stated that, a month later, she was sexually assaulted by the same schoolteacher, this time in the bathroom. “This assault was more violent, and during the incident the teacher put his boot on her back, stuffed a bandanna in her mouth, which later caught on her braces, slammed her against the wall, and whipped her with a belt,” reads the suit, which noted that she was 12 at the time, living in a group home, and was too scared to report the assaults.
The former classmate claims that “the details of these two sexual assaults which she was the victim of were later converted by Griffin for use in the memoir ‘The Tell.’ ”
According to Griffin’s dueling lawsuit, every element of her former classmate’s account is false, and the accusation that Griffin “stole the rape of another woman and built a bestseller on it” is fabricated.
Griffin’s suit claims that her former classmate hadn’t detailed the story as her own until the New York Times sent her a copy of “The Tell,” in search of finding out who the real person behind the memoir’s character “Claudia” was. Griffin further took aim at the New York Times, alleging the outlet deemed the story “too good to scrutinize.”
“ ‘The Tell’ recounts Mrs. Griffin’s own abuse: memories she recorded in writing and reported to the police before [her former classmate] claims they were stolen,” reads the June filing.
New York Times spokesperson Danielle Rhoades Ha said in an email to the Associated Press that Griffin’s lawsuit “repeatedly misrepresents The New York Times story and its reporting.”
“Our story was about a publishing phenomenon, the reliability of memories recovered while under the influence of MDMA and the impact of a bestselling memoir on the author’s hometown,” she said. “Our reporters’ only agenda was to pursue the facts, including corroboration of accounts from all sources.”
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Badenoch blasts 'moaning' female Labour MPs over Burnham jobs 'quota'
Kemi Badenoch has told Labour women to earn a job in Andy Burnham's Cabinet instead of demanding they are handed jobs because of their gender.
The Tory leader lashed out today amid reports that female MPs are demanding the de-facto new prime minister introduce a 50:50 gender split 'quota' in his government.
Amid reports that former foreign secretary David Miliband is being lined up to return to the role, possibly with his brother Ed as Chancellor, one female minister also complained that Burnham could not have 'more Milibands than women' in the top posts.
But in a scathing article in the Times today Mrs Badenoch told them to 'stop moaning' and get chosen on merit instead of retreating into 'more of the failed identity politics that is holding back our country'.
'There are many, many reasons why you shouldn't have any Milibands in the cabinet,' she said.
'But complaining that the boys haven't given them the right jobs or that the boys are taking all the jobs, just shows that Labour's women still don't get it.'
The idea of quotas was also attacked by Baroness Jacqui Smith, Labour's Skills Minister.
Asked by Times Radio if Mr Burnham should reserve jobs for women, she said: 'No, I think what Andy Burnham should be doing is building the very best team around him to change this country.'
A letter written by the Women's Parliamentary Labour Party has called on Mr Burnham to ensure a 50:50 split between men and women in government jobs
Amid reports that former foreign secretary David Miliband (above, right, in 2010) is being lined up to return to the role, possibly with his brother Ed as Chancellor, one female minister complained that Burnham could not have 'more Milibands than women' in the top posts
But Mrs Badenoch told them to pipe down and get chosen on merit instead of retreating into 'more of the failed identity politics that is holding back our country'
A letter written by the Women's Parliamentary Labour Party and seen by the BBC has called on Mr Burnham to ensure a 50:50 split between men and women in government jobs after he succeeds Sir Keir Starmer.
'We are asking you to demonstrate this change from day one and address the toxicity and misogyny within our own party and government,' it said.
Labour has never had a female leader, while the Conservatives have had three, and Mrs Badenoch urged the government to follow its meritocratic example.
'If you run a meritocracy, then you do not have to worry about jobs for the boys,' she wrote.
'Every woman who is a Conservative MP, every woman who has ever won the leadership, has had to fight to get where she is.
'By contrast, Labour women are demanding guarantees from Burnham. But the truth is he doesn't have to give any guarantees.
'If none of Labour's women are prepared to get their hands dirty and challenge him for the leadership, their demands are toothless.'
'In fact, it's quite revealing that the women's parliamentary Labour Party has written to Burnham asking him to commit himself to at least 50 per cent female ministers.
'This has nothing to do with meritocracy. It is yet more of the failed identity politics that is holding back our country.'
