Janel Grant made a rare public appearance on Thursday at a Capitol news briefing hosted by the Connecticut Alliance to End Sexual Violence.
The event addressed the use of non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) in workplace misconduct cases and their impact on survivors. Grant spoke about the NDA at the center of her lawsuit against WWE and Vince McMahon, as well as the fallout from the June 2022 Wall Street Journal article that publicly named her in a report detailing allegations against McMahon.
“On June 15th of 2022, my life was rewritten into someone else’s storyline. And I was globally outed in the Wall Street Journal,” Grant said in her speech.
Grant said the situation took a severe toll on her mental health, including thoughts of self-harm.
“That is the life-wrecking and the mental health impact of this particular NDA.”
“The people and organizations that have supported me when I was the loneliest person on planet Earth, when my life got decimated in the Wall Street Journal, without them, I would not be here,” she continued.
Grant spoke about the impact NDAs can have on workplaces and how they can prevent survivors from speaking up.
“Workplace safety depends on transparency because when employees cannot speak, patterns can’t be seen. When patterns can’t be seen, they can’t be stopped. When they can’t be stopped, harm spreads.”
“When an NDA is used to conceal dangerous behavior, it simply relocates the harm to the next employee, the next office, the next victim.”
Grant said that after the initial Wall Street Journal report, WWE requested that she make a joint statement describing the relationship as consensual. She declined, but a WWE spokesperson later described it as consensual in the second Wall Street Journal article published the following month.
“So someone, a group maybe, behind my back, without my knowledge, without my input, made that decision for me, it’s consensual, we say so.”
She said she was permitted to participate in the company’s internal investigation, but that it concluded without interviewing her. Grant also said she was granted whistleblower status by the SEC as a federal criminal investigation into the allegations was underway.
“In March of 2023, I got two things from the SEC. I got a subpoena, and I got whistleblower status. A couple days after that, Vince McMahon and Ari Emanuel suddenly appeared on CNBC to announce a deal of Endeavor and WWE, so color me the most surprised person on planet Earth.”
Grant also mentioned that there had been a WWE storyline playing out on Raw for months that mirrored her situation, although she did not mention what storyline she was referring to.
“And in the summer of 2024, reporters and viewers noticed there were parallels between the storyline that unfolded for several months on television and my situation.”
Grant also said she did not want to file the civil suit because she understood the impact it would have on her life.
“I knew what I would be about to throw my life into, but I had been dragged in by this NDA into a federal investigation, the SEC, all the consequences, all the things that have happened that have made my life so small and isolated, I didn’t start that. It’s like it found me.”
Near the end of her speech, Grant sent a message to TKO leadership:
“To the board of TKO, if you didn’t know this part of your origin story, now you know. I hope you will have conversations with us. I will hope you have conversations amongst yourselves, and I hope that you don’t rely on old instincts with new insight.”
“All of you have some say in how my life turns out from here, including how quickly I may be able to move on and find help and healing.”
Video of the full event from Thursday is available below. Grant’s remarks begin at around the 10-minute and 30-second mark.
