Former ‘Idol’ host DioGuardi discusses sexual assaults in memoir

Kara DioGuardi, a former American Idol judge, has written a memoir due out next week.

In the book, A Helluva High Note, DioGuardi recalls “multiple” sexual assaults, the first of which occurred when she was just 11 years old. According to Entertainment Weekly, DioGuardi strongly emphasized her lack of choice in the matter:

The other instances occurred later in her life, as she was just beginning her career in the music industry. DioGuardi writes, the emphatic capitalization hers, “I DO NOT (DID NOT) SLEEP WITH ANYONE TO ADVANCE MY CAREER,” but that did not stop those she worked with from expecting her to. She describes a sexual phone call she received from an executive for “one of the major record companies,” as well as an incident in which she was date raped by “a fairly well-known producer [who] had seemingly taken an interest in [her] songwriting.”

DioGuardi also discusses a specific incident that almost reads like blind gossip, detailing an incident in which she expected to work, but was exposed to a litany of disturbing and upsetting advances:

She then details a trip with a “well-known, hugely successful international artist” that was supposed to be an opportunity to write songs and prove her talent, but ended up a skeezy itinerary of activities that included “watching Russian porn, scavenging around the kitchen for food, leering at two strippers […] as they performed sex acts in the living room,” and for which she says she “could have sued Sony for millions of dollars.”

The book also discusses DioGuardi’s fertility struggles and her decision to leave AI.