Lil Uzi Vert Says Rehab Betrayed Their Trust by Secretly Recording Therapy Session
Seeking treatment is supposed to come with one guarantee: what happens in therapy stays in therapy. According to rapper Lil Uzi Vert, that promise was shattered.
The Grammy-nominated artist filed a lawsuit accusing a California rehabilitation facility and one of its employees of secretly recording a private therapy session before the footage allegedly made its way across social media, according to PEOPLE.
According to court documents obtained by the outlet, Lil Uzi Vert — real name Symere Woods — claims an employee at Oro House Recovery Centers’ Acadia Malibu facility recorded part of their individual therapy session in 2022 without Woods’ knowledge or permission. The lawsuit alleges the employee later shared the video with her teenage nephew, and it didn’t take long for the footage to surface on X—then to Instagram.
The touchy case isn’t just about celebrity gossip gone wrong. It centers around a fundamental breach of trust and contract.
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Rehabilitation centers, like most health treatment centers, depend on patients believing they can be vulnerable without worrying that their darkest moments will become internet content. That expectation is protected by privacy laws designed to safeguard medical information, according to the American Addiction Center.
Woods’ lawsuit alleges invasion of privacy, emotional distress, negligent hiring and supervision, breach of contract and violations of California’s Confidentiality of Medical Information Act. The complaint argues that both the employee and the facility failed to protect sensitive medical information that patients reasonably expect will remain confidential.
For celebrities, privacy often feels like a luxury. Cameras are everywhere, and personal moments regularly become a public spectacle. But Woods’ case centers around a slightly different debate over privacy laws that every single American citizen is supposed to have the right to, no matter their celebrity status.
That debate may end up carrying just as much weight as the lawsuit itself.
The legal battle also scored an early procedural win for Woods. In June, a Los Angeles judge rejected the defendants’ request to force the rapper to travel to California for a deposition and denied their request for monetary sanctions. Instead, the court ruled Woods could be deposed closer to home in New York City or remotely by videoconference.
“The Court reached the right decision here,” Woods’ attorney, David Moreno, told PEOPLE following the ruling. “We look forward to taking this case to trial.”
The lawsuit doesn’t identify who ultimately uploaded the alleged recording online. But according to Woods, the employee’s decision to record and share the video set off a chain of events in motion that, unfortunately, cannot be rewound.
