Winner.
Photo: Arturo Holmes/Getty Images
Megan Thee Stallion won her defamation lawsuit against the blogger Milagro Gramz, real name Milagro Cooper, on December 1. Cooper was found liable for defamation, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and spreading a sexual deepfake of Megan after the rapper was shot in the foot by Tory Lanez in July 2020, per NBC News. The jury initially awarded Megan damages of $75,000, but judge Cecilia M. Altonaga brought the total down to $59,000. In their filing, Megan’s lawyers accused Cooper of being a “mouthpiece,” “puppet,” and “paid surrogate” for Lanez after the shooting. Her lawyers said Cooper had “acted on behalf of” Lanez as “an online rumor mill churning out falsehoods … to her tens of thousands of social-media followers” and noted she was paid by Lanez’s father, Sonstar Peterson, according to Local 10 Florida.
“I’m just happy,” Megan said in a video shared by court reporter Meghann Cuniff outside the courtroom. Cooper, however, told NBC News she’s “not ecstatic.” “Of course, you want things to go your way, but like I said, I respect the jury and what they decided,” she stated. Her lawyer, Jeremy McLymont, meanwhile, was pleased the damages were not higher. “We respect the jury’s verdict — you always have to, right? Whether we agree with it or not, we respect it,” he said. “At the end of the day, it was not a complete win for any side.” Lanez, who in 2023 was convicted of assault with a semi-automatic firearm, carrying a loaded unregistered firearm in a vehicle, and discharging a firearm with gross negligence, continues to serve his ten-year prison sentence.
