Mark Zuckerberg and wife sued by domestic staff
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan are being sued by two ex-household staff over alleged racist and homophobic abuse by the family’s former head of security.
According to Business Insider, the suit was filed by Mia King, a black woman who had served as a security operations assistant and a John Doe, a gay and disabled man who worked as a household operations manager. The duo claimed they had received racist and homophobic abuse from the billionaire couple’s former head of security Liam Booth.
In their twin lawsuit filed in the San Francisco County, King stated that Booth would often call her ‘ghetto’ and complain that Meghan Markle, who is bi-racial, ‘polluted the royal blood line’ by marrying Prince Harry.
Doe alleged that Booth made constant comments about his homosexuality and slapped his groin at a sushi restaurant in 2018.
The lawsuit stated that other employees had witnessed Booth groping Doe’s butt in Zuckerberg’s Montana property that same year and imitating ‘lewd sex acts in front of him.
Booth, a former secret service agent, resigned from Zuckerberg’s employment in 2019 following a probe into the complaints.
However, Zuckerberg and Chan have refuted these claims. In a statement, their personal spokesperson Ben LaBolt said the company’s internal investigation found no evidence of wrongdoing.
‘As we previously stated when these claims were anonymously leaked to the media over two years ago, our family office follows a strict code of conduct that requires appropriate behaviour from all members of our teams. It is our expectation that each of our employees adheres to this code of conduct,’ LaBolt said.
Booth’s alleged behaviours first came to light in 2019 as former employees detailed his shocking behaviour.
A former senior manager of executive protection alleged that Booth told him the Black Lives Matter movement was a ‘terrorist organisation’ and described a King as a ‘ghetto b***h,’ a ‘hoodrat,’ and a ‘c**t.’
Another female security worker said Booth had said he was “tired of all the Black Lives Matter bulls**t,” ‘and that he ‘often used the word “n*****” to label African Americans.’
Additionally, she alleged that Booth insulted Chan, who is Asian, calling her a bad driver while deliberately narrowing his eyes.
In the twin lawsuit, John Doe Claims he emailed Zuckerberg and Chan directly about the problem in 2019 but didn’t receive a response. The plaintiffs in their suit also claimed that they had not received the legal amount of break or paid overtime hours they were due, a violation of A Fair Day’s Pay Act.
Guardian/Hauwa Abu
