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Halsey Settles Court War With Ex-Nanny They Accused of Being Intoxicated Around Their Son
Singer Halsey hashed out a deal with their former nanny to end their two-year legal beef weeks before a scheduled trial, In Touch can exclusively report.
According to court documents obtained by In Touch, the former employee, Ashley Funches, told the court the settlement with Halsey, 30, was reached on September 26.
The parties were set to face off at a trial on November 12.
Ashley filed her lawsuit against the singer on June 9, 2022, in Los Angeles Superior Court. She claimed that she was wrongfully terminated by the entertainer and discriminated against due to her disability.
Ashley said that she was hired in 2021 to work as a live-in personal nanny for the singer’s then-newborn, Ender.
The nanny said she was “misclassified” as an employee that was “exempt” from overtime pay. She said she raised the issue to Halsey and pointed out she “regularly worked over nine hours a day and 45 hours a week without overtime compensation” during her employment.
On top of that, Ashley claimed that she was fired after she let Halsey know she needed to take time off for a medical procedure.
Ashley’s lawyer said Halsey had “illegally and wrongfully terminated [Ashley] in retaliation for complaining about” Halsey’s “illegal and unlawful practice of failing to pay her overtime wages and on the basis of her disability and/or perceived disability.” Her lawsuit demanded unspecified damages. In response, Halsey’s rep slammed Ashley’s “baseless” claims.
Her rep said, “These allegations are baseless. This individual’s employment was recently terminated in response to specific incidents in which Halsey’s infant was left unsupervised in an unsafe location while under the nanny’s care, and it was discovered the nanny was intoxicated while the child was in her care.”
“Furthermore, at no time during this individual’s term of employment with Halsey were any complaints even raised. Consequently, while Halsey is both saddened and disappointed by this turn of events, they feel it is important to refute these allegations publicly, as they take ableism and ethical working conditions very seriously,” the rep added.
In her official response in court, Halsey’s lawyer argued, “[Ashley’s] claims are barred in whole or part, because the alleged conduct of which [Ashley] complains, if committed, was made in good faith, honestly, without malice, in the exercise of business judgment for legitimate, non-discriminatory and non-retaliatory reasons.”
Further, “[Halsey’s] allege their activities undertaken with respect to [Ashley] were justified as such activities were proper, fair, and legitimate business activities and/or due to business related reasons which were neither arbitrary, capricious, nor unlawful.”
Earlier this year, Ashley and Halsey were going back and forth over Ashley’s deposition.
The singer demanded the former employee be ordered to show up for a second day of grilling but was facing resistance.
The entertainer’s lawyer claimed they had made “good faith efforts to coordinate [Ashley’s] deposition for months, and it is still not complete. Defense counsel has tried on countless occasions to secure and confirm the deposition of [Ashley] but has been met with silence or empty promises.”
The judge ended up ordering Ashley to show up for a second day of deposition months before the settlement was executed.
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