There’s no love lost in the ongoing legal battle between ex-WWE CEO Vince McMahon and a former employee who alleges he sexually abused her for years.
In a letter written by Janel Grant — the ex-employee who dropped the bombshell lawsuit on McMahon last year — and obtained by the New York Post, she said that the couple was “in love with a capital L” and that McMahon was her “best friend, my love and my everything.”
“After almost 3 years together, it’s like my life isn’t even real to me unless you’re there and in it and I’m sharing it all with you,” Grant wrote in the Dec. 24, 2021, letter to McMahon.
However, Grant’s attorney, Ann Callis, said that Grant was told by McMahon to write the note.
“Frankly it’s pretty disgusting that Vince’s weeks-late attempt to defend his horrendous behavior — behaviour he claims to this day never happened — is to try to showcase letters that Vince himself coerced her to write,” Callis told the Post.
“His psychological torture of her continues — as is typical of abusive predators who respond to women speaking out with increased threats. While Janel isn’t a stranger to his intimidation tactics, this is a new low even for him.”
The letter is a stark contrast to the claims in Grant’s suit against McMahon – who abruptly stepped down as the head of WWE a day before the complaint was filed – in which she claims that he trafficked her to other WWE executives and wrestlers and caused physical injuries “from forceful use of sex toys” that were named after male WWE stars.
She also alleges that McMahon defecated on her head during a threesome in 2020.
In response to the allegations of coercion over the letter, McMahon’s attorney, Jessica Taub Rosenberg, told the Post that “this is revisionist history. No one coerced Ms. Grant to write that letter. She wrote it of her own accord. The fact that the letter shows it was the 24th draft speaks volumes.”
Rosenberg added that Grant did not mention this coercion in her suit against McMahon.
“Nowhere in her voluminous complaint, that is replete with fabrications, does she mention being coerced into such behaviour. The language of the letter is consistent with other communications she made to Mr. McMahon over the course of their consensual relationship,” she said.
A spokesperson for Grant also said that the 43-year-old underwent finger surgery three days before sending the letter and expressed concern about finishing it.
“I think I’m tapping out today,” said in a text exchange with McMahon published by the Post.
“How will I write your letter?” Grant added. “I can type and read it … or try to write in a couple days.
“I’m so sorry if I mess this up, I want you to have a nice letter :(“
An unnamed rep for Grant also said that she was asked to write a letter at McMahon’s request on several occasions and began to pad them with material from celebrity interviews, including a GQ article about Megan Fox and Machine Gun Kelly that was published two months before the letter.
In Molly Lambert’s GQ piece about that relationship, she wrote: “The carnal component is clearly off the charts, but they can also be sweet and funny” and “Fox and MGK are in Love, with a capital L” — two phrases that were lifted nearly word-for-word in Grant’s letter.