A judge will rule next month whether Robbie Williams must give evidence in a sexual harassment lawsuit involving the singer and his wife.
The Take That star and Ayda Field are being sued by their former personal assistant Gilles De Bonfilhs over claims Ayda “engaged in unwanted and unwelcome sexual conduct and behaviour” towards the ex-employee.
In a lawsuit filed at the Los Angeles Superior Court, Gilles claims Ayda exposed her naked body, asked him intimate questions about his sex life and discussed her own “sexual activity” while he worked for the couple between October 2014 and January 2015.
He is suing Robbie and Loose Women panellist Ayda for sexual harassment, discrimination, breach of employment contract and fraud.
The case was heard briefly before judge Deirdre Hill on Thursday, where a motion has been filed to “compel deposition” from the celebrity couple.
The judge will make a ruling on the motion on December 9, ahead of a planned trial set for February 16.
Robbie and Ayda, who were not in court for the hearing, have branded Gilles’s claims “despicable lies” and have filed a counter complaint for fraud and false invasion of privacy.
The couple married in August 2010 and have two children together – daughter Theodora Rose, four, and two-year-old son Charlton Valentine.
According to Gilles’ lawsuit, it is alleged Ayda made “comments of a sexual nature” while he worked at the couple’s Los Angeles home and requested he “enter private areas of her home with her while she was in various states of undress”.
She also “shared personal information about her sex life” and “disclosed information about the nature and frequency of her sexual activity”, Gilles claims.
Other allegations include that Ayda “exposed her naked body”, questioned Gilles about his sex life and “sexual interests” and asked him to comment on her body and appearance.
The lawsuit states: “Field engaged in unwanted and unwelcome sexual conduct and behaviour towards the plaintiff and placed inappropriate job requirements of a sexual nature upon the plaintiff.”
Meanwhile, Gilles’s fraud claim states that Robbie and Ayda offered him a minimum six-month work contract which they “knew was untrue”.
In their counter complaint, Robbie, 42, and Ayda, 37, claim Gilles engaged in a “deceitful kickback scheme” by using his status of their assistant to “secure under the table payments for his services” over the sale of two vehicles belonging to the couple.
The lawsuit states: “As well known figures in the entertainment industry, Ms Field and Mr Williams’ public reputations have been wrongfully attacked by (De Bonfilhs’s) malicious, deceitful, greedy and wanton conduct and his outright despicable lies.”
The couple also claim Gilles was fired after three months for his “total job abandonment and numerous other instances of wrongful conduct”.
