By Nick Stoico Updated August 24, 2022
Mario Batali has agreed to settle a pair of civil lawsuits brought by two women who accused the celebrity chef of sexual misconduct in separate incidents in Boston, one of which led to Batali’s acquittal at trial in May.
Lawyers for the two women confirmed in a statement Wednesday that the settlements had been reached. Terms of the agreements were not disclosed.
“The matters have been resolved to the satisfaction of all parties,” the lawyers, Eric Baum and Matthew Fogelman, said. “We cannot comment further due to confidentiality obligations.”
Batali’s lawyer could not be reached for comment.
The former Food Network personality has faced misconduct accusations from several women since 2017, when the #MeToo movement was gaining momentum.
Last year, Batali, his former business partner, Joe Bastianich, and their New York City-based restaurant company B&B Hospitality agreed to pay $600,000 in connection with a four-year investigation by the New York attorney general’s office into allegations of sexual harassment made against Batali and other staff.
In the Boston cases, Batali had been accused of inappropriately touching both women in separate encounters in 2016 and 2017.
The allegations from 2017 led to a two-day trial in a Boston courtroom earlier this year that hinged on the credibility of Batali’s accuser, who claimed that he grabbed her buttocks, breasts, and groin while taking selfies with him at a Back Bay restaurant.
Batali’s lawyer questioned the woman’s account and confronted her with text messages that showed her joking with friends about the encounter and discussing ways to profit from it. Boston Municipal Court Judge James Stanton sided with Batali’s lawyer, saying the accuser had “significant credibility issues” and that prosecutors did not meet their burden of proof.
Another woman filed a lawsuit against Batali in Suffolk Superior Court in 2019, claiming Batali groped and kissed her in a Chinatown restaurant in 2016.
