Former Zuckerberg Household Employees Sue

Two former household employees of Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan are now suing the Facebook founder and his wife. Both their former security operations assistant (Mia King, who is Black) and their former household operations manager (an unnamed John Doe who is gay and has a disability) filed lawsuits, alleging the family's former head of security hurled racist and sexist harassment at them, Complex reports. Liam Booth is accused of repeatedly referring to King as "ghetto," calling her hairstyle unprofessional, making other racist comments, and saying she was only hired because of her race, and of making homophobic comments toward Doe and slapping his groin on two different occasions.

"When their lawyers shared these concerns, both our HR Department and outside counsel conducted separate multi-week investigations into the allegations, including by conducting numerous interviews of their colleagues and reviewing other relevant documents and information," a rep for the Zuckerberg-Chan "family office" tells the New York Post. "Following these thorough investigations, these allegations simply could not be substantiated. We firmly believe that these employees were treated fairly and respectfully and the family office is confident that it will defeat these claims." Booth has not commented.

King actually worked for Limitless, the company Zuckerberg and Chan had hired for security, and she says the firm fired her in 2019 after she complained about Booth multiple times and was brushed aside. She also says the company compelled her to work overtime but didn't pay her for it, and Doe makes similar allegations in his lawsuit. Some of the specific comments and actions that Booth is accused of include: blaming Chan for a car accident, pulling his eyes back and saying Asian women are bad drivers; claiming Meghan Markle "polluted the royal bloodline"; using homophobic epithets; and speaking with a fake lisp when talking about gay people. He also allegedly called King a "c---" and a "b----," NBC News reports. (More Mark Zuckerberg stories.)