After a year marked by lawsuits, public scrutiny, and emotional fallout, Lizzo is finally speaking openly about what that period actually looked like from the inside. In a new interview with Women’s Health, the artist opens up about depression, isolation, and the small but powerful moment that helped her begin to feel like herself again: attending a Beyoncé concert.

In August 2023, three of Lizzo’s former dancers filed a lawsuit accusing her of sexual harassment, weight-shaming, and creating a hostile work environment. A month later, a second lawsuit followed, this time from a former stylist alleging racial discrimination and bullying on her team. Lizzo has denied all allegations, calling them false and damaging. Some claims were dismissed by a judge in 2024, but the case continues, with Lizzo filing an appeal in June 2025, arguing that parts of the lawsuit infringe on her First Amendment rights.

Caught in the center of public opinion and legal disputes, Lizzo says she found herself withdrawing completely. “I got very paranoid and isolated,” she told Women’s Health. “I wasn’t even talking to my therapist.” What used to be a safe, expressive space: her glam room, her team, her routines, started to feel like another stage for judgment. “You look around and think about every person you’ve ever known and every experience, and you wonder, ‘Was that real?’”

In the middle of all this, she went to see Beyoncé’s Renaissance Tour. It was a risk. She worried the crowd would turn on her. “I was so nervous,” she said. “I thought people would boo me or yell at me.” Instead, she was met with kindness. Strangers offered support, and it stuck. “It made me feel like, ‘Wow, maybe I don’t want to die. Life is worth living.’ That was the start of me saying, ‘OK, Melissa, get up and take your life back.’”

Beyoncé’s music has been a constant in Lizzo’s life, and that night she got something more: a personal shoutout during “Break My Soul (The Queens Remix),” a gesture Beyoncé repeated at several tour stops. “In that moment, I was thinking about baby me, listening to ‘Happy Face’ by Destiny’s Child and crying myself to sleep because of bullies,” she wrote on Instagram afterward. “It’s an honor.”

Since then, Lizzo has slowly been rebuilding. She’s returned to therapy, prioritizing her physical and mental health, while also working on her next album, Love in Real Life. The process hasn’t been easy, and the legal battles haven’t gone away, but still, she seems focused on moving forward.