Amy Griffin Sues Former Classmate in Nevada While Facing Separate California Lawsuit Over Memoir Claims

Amy Griffin filed a defamation lawsuit Monday in federal court in Nevada against a former classmate, accusing the woman of falsely claiming Griffin stole her story of sexual abuse for the 2025 memoir The Tell. The complaint alleges the former classmate portrayed Griffin as "a fraud and a thief" in comments published by The New York Times and in a separate lawsuit the woman filed earlier this year in California.

Griffin is seeking damages and a court declaration that the allegations are false.

The Tell, selected for Oprah's Book Club, details Griffin's account of being sexually abused by a teacher while attending middle school in Amarillo, Texas. Griffin wrote that she recovered memories of the abuse through therapy involving MDMA. The New York Times published a story examining the memoir and reporting claims from a former classmate that aspects of Griffin's account resembled her own experiences.

The woman later filed the California lawsuit, which Griffin is seeking to dismiss. The New York Times is not named as a defendant in Griffin's Nevada suit. Griffin's complaint states she documented her abuse in writing in 2020 and provided a detailed statement to Amarillo police in 2021.

The lawsuit says Griffin had not spoken to the former classmate in more than three decades and disputes assertions that the two met for coffee in California in 2019. The woman filed her California lawsuit anonymously as Jane Doe. " A spokesperson for The New York Times rejected the characterization in Griffin's complaint.

Danielle Rhoades Ha stated that the Times extensively fact-checked the story and worked with Griffin's legal team before publication. The newspaper said several allegations Griffin now disputes were never reported in its article. Griffin's attorneys say records and witness accounts contradict the woman's version of events.