Comedian Bobby Lee, the co-host of the podcast TigerBelly, is suing Wondery for breach of contract after the audio company ended a 39-month deal early.
Lee, who co-hosts the show with Khalyla Kuhn, claims that Wondery was "under pressure to cut expenses and roll back its financial commitments" leading to the termination of the show in early April.
- The deal that TigerBelly and Wondery had in place was in exchange for "multimillion-dollar financial guarantees that reflected the widespread success and popularity of [the podcast]."
- Wondery claimed that Lee broke a
"morals clause" in its termination letter in April. It cited a story
that Lee told in 2013 about paying for "a young-looking sex worker who
had tears in her eyes" in Tijuana while a guest on other podcasts.
- Lee has since apologized for this story and claims that he made it up by combining two bits of his act.
- TigerBelly claims that it never entered into a morals clause with Wondery and that Wondery would have known about the story prior to entering into an agreement with the show.
- TigerBelly has been self-publishing its podcast since April and just celebrated its 400th episode.