Drag performer Crystal has given her triumphant first interview since a judge ruled in her favour in a high-profile legal battle with Laurence Fox.
In October 2020, Crystal – whose legal name is Colin Seymour – and former Stonewall trustee Simon Blake filed a defamation lawsuit against the actor after he referred to them as “paedophiles” on X, the social media website then known as Twitter.
After a legal case spanning three years, a judge at the High Court said on Monday afternoon that Fox’s use of the term was “harmful, defamatory and baseless”.
Fox previously filed a countersuit against the two parties, as well as former Coronation Street actor and social commentator Nicola Thorp, over social media posts they shared accusing him of racism. This case was also thrown out on Monday.
Appearing on Sky News on Tuesday morning, the former Drag Race UK contestant told anchor Kay Burley: “The long and short of it is that I called Laurence Fox a racist, and he retaliated by calling me a paedophile.
“The judge found yesterday that me calling him a racist was not defamatory, and him calling me a paedophile was. So, we had a victory on all counts, and it’s incredibly liberating and satisfying after three long years.”
“I think if I’d have known at the outset that it was going to be three-and-a-half years later that we’d still be talking about this, I may have thought twice,” the Canadian performer admitted.
“But honestly, he is a bully, and accusations of paedophilia against people in the queer community, against drag queens, these are old, old tropes and I didn’t want to stand for it. I didn’t want to let that slide. It honestly felt like if I didn’t pursue this, to the very end, that it was a tacit admission. I needed to see it through and make it clear that there was no basis of fact to this.”
Asked whether Crystal felt any sympathy towards the ex-GB News presenter “as a human being”, she claimed she was “not there yet”.
“It’s hard to [feel sympathy] because I’ve spent the last three years feeling very attacked by him,” she said, describing his behaviour in court as “erratic” and “defensive”.
“He used the N-word in the box, he defended Blackface, he couldn’t agree that saying ‘I hate Black people’ was a racist statement, it was really hard to watch,” Crystal noted.
For her appearance on Sky News, Crystal notably paid tribute to the Legally Blonde character Elle Woods, portrayed in the film by Reese Witherspoon.
Crystal previously shared a lengthy statement in response to the judge’s ruling on Monday, declaring: “I’ve said it before, but paedophilia is one of the oldest and most damaging homophobic tropes.
“Since Mr Fox used that word about me, I have been re-labelled as such dozens of times, been physically threatened, and been afraid for my safety in public.
“This judgment unequivocally states that his tweet was defamatory and that it caused me harm. I am very happy to have this finalised, and I hope it will make some difference in the ongoing demonisation of queer people as ‘groomers’ or ‘dangerous’. This is a lesson: we will not take it.
Nicola Thorp also celebrated the verdict with a message posted on X, which began: “We won. On all counts.”
For his part, Laurence Fox hinted he intends to appeal the verdict in a message posted on X on Tuesday morning: