Famed artist Smokey Robinson has been accused of severe misconduct, including sexual battery and unlawful confinement, according to a shocking lawsuit filed by his past staff members.
The lawsuit, submitted in California’s Superior Court in Los Angeles, claims that 85-year-old Robinson fostered a toxic workplace environment, implicating his spouse Frances Robinson as well.
The lawsuit further alleges assault and gender-related violence, with four former domestic workers asserting that the singer repeatedly pursued them around his Los Angeles residence.
They claimed Robinson would order them to his bedroom or to rooms in the property where he knew surveillance cameras would not find them, before allegedly raping and ‘humiliating’ them.
His wife Frances is accused of failing to step in despite knowledge of her husband’s alleged depravity, including being driven to a nail salon so he could be ‘home alone’ with one of his accusers every Saturday.
Robinson has been on tour to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of his hit soul album A Quiet Storm, and is set to perform hours after the press conference in Huntington, New York on Tuesday night.
The singer has not responded to news of the lawsuit, and his company did not immediately respond to a request for comment from DailyMail.com.
Iconic singer Smokey Robinson (pictured in April 2025) has been hit with a slew of sickening allegations including sexual battery and false imprisonment in a bombshell lawsuit from his former employees
Robinson, 85, is alleged to have created a hostile work environment, with his wife Frances Robinson (seen together in March 2024) also named in the lawsuit
The four plaintiffs who are suing Robinson have chosen to remain nameless and are referred to only as Jane Doe in the filings.
One of the plaintiffs alleged that Robinson sexually assaulted her several times beginning in 2016, claiming the singer would text her when she was at his Los Angeles mansion and tell her to meet him in rooms without cameras.
‘He would then summon her to either the laundry room or garage, where there were no cameras,’ the lawsuit claims, per The Sun.
The accuser said that Robinson assaulted her at least 23 times, and would then threaten her by saying his wife would be ‘mean’ to her if she didn’t comply, the lawsuit claims.
In another allegation, a former housekeeper alleged that she was sexually assaulted by Robinson a month into beginning working for him.
She claimed that the singer would take his wife to the nail salon on Saturdays and rush home to ‘be home alone’ with the housekeeper, and he would allegedly attack her on his bed when he returned, per the reported lawsuit.
She claimed this occurred at least seven times, forcing her to stop working for Robinson in February 2024. She also claimed that the singer and his wife ‘failed to pay minimum wage or overtime wages.’
The lawsuit comes just weeks after Robinson released his latest album ‘What The World Needs Now’, with the singer hit with news of the lawsuit just hours before he is set to take the stage in New York on Tuesday night
The third accuser claimed that she was also working as a housekeeper when Robinson attacked her, and alleged a similar pattern of abuse whereby the singer would lure her to his bedroom.
She said Robinson raped her at least 20 times, and on one occasion he offered her $500 to ‘allow him to orally copulate her’, per the lawsuit.
The fourth accuser also says she was attacked by Robinson while working as a housekeeper, alleging that he ‘never used a condom’ while assaulting her in his home, the lawsuit claimed.
The lawsuit comes just weeks after Robinson released his latest album ‘What The World Needs Now’ on April 25.
When he announced the release of the album last month, Robinson told CBS Mornings: ‘I want people to be inspired to care about each other and to love each other.’
When asked about the legacy he hoped to leave as he embarked on his A Quiet Storm tour, he told the broadcaster he hoped it would e that he ‘was a good human being.’
‘(One) who ecognized the fact that you don’t get any bigger than being a human being. I don’t care what your craft is, or what you do for your living and all that… So, I hope that that’s my legacy.’
