Billionaire Amy Griffin says she is being ‘hunted’ amid claims she stole childhood abuse story
Billionaire Amy Griffin says she is being ‘hunted’ amid claims she stole childhood abuse story
Morning Honey Staff Mon, November 9, 2026 at 1:45 PM UTC
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The Tell became a New York Times bestseller and Oprah's Book Club pick. By: @AMYGRIFFIN/INSTAGRAM
Amy Griffin believes she is the target of a hunt, as the legal fight over her bestselling memoir The Tell continues. The billionaire venture capitalist has rejected claims from a former classmate, Joleene Altum, who says Griffin built part of the book on her experience of sexual abuse.
Griffin’s lawyers have answered with a chronology they say makes that impossible, and the two women remain locked in dueling lawsuits.
Griffin’s lawyers point to a paper trail
Griffin’s legal team said she wrote down her memories of abuse in 2020, gave the Amarillo Police Department a detailed account in 2021, and had a finished manuscript by March 2022.
Her filings argued that this sequence leaves no room to steal someone else’s account because the alleged information gathering came later.
“There is a difference between scrutiny and a hunt. Scrutiny, Amy welcomes, because the record holds up. What she has lived with since the summer is a hunt,” a source said.
“Amy is not challenging Joleene’s experience of abuse. She is challenging the allegations that she took Joleene’s story and passed it off as her own.”
Her accuser’s lawyer,Zachary Rosenblatt, said the case will be proven in court. He claimed, “The truth is on our client’s side and we look forward to proving that in court.”
What Altum alleges
Altum first sued as Jane Doe in early March, accusing Griffin of invasion of privacy, negligence, and infliction of emotional distress. Her complaint said two episodes in the memoir, an assault at a school dance and another in a school bathroom, happened to her and not to Griffin.
In the book, Griffin describes lending a cotillion dress to a classmate she calls “Claudia.” Altum says she is that classmate, that she wore Griffin’s dress to the dance, and that she returned it stained.
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In April 2022, she said, a man named Dominique Price phoned her while posing as a talent agent and asked about her life story. Once she described her abuse, the contact stopped.
Griffin’s defamation countersuit
On June 15, Griffin sued Altum for defamation in Los Angeles. The filing called every element of Altum’s account false. Griffin’s lawyers said she had not spoken to Altum in more than 35 years.
The complaint also said the real “Claudia” was another friend Griffin met in April 2023. Her team paired the suit with an anti-SLAPP motion asking the court to toss Altum’s case. Altum’s attorneys called the filing a public relations stunt.
The story that started the questions
The New York Times raised the first doubts on September 24, 2025, about six months after the book came out. Reporters spoke with a classmate who said some scenes in the memoir closely resembled abuse she endured at the hands of a different teacher.
Law enforcement in Amarillo and state education officials told the paper they had received no other complaints about the now-retired teacher in his 30 years with the district. The article also looked at financial ties between Griffin and several celebrities who promoted the book.
Thomas A. Clare, Griffin’s attorney, said the article has “manufactured a false narrative.” Further reports added that Griffin made threatening comments about the journalist who wrote the story.
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Source: “AOL Entertainment”
