"Dancing With The Stars" pro Val Chmerkovskiy is being sued for allegedly putting up a controversial social media post.
Earlier this month, the 29-year-old dancer posted a meme to his social media accounts of a girl drinking soda that reads, "Letting your kid become obese should be considered child abuse." The girl in the photo is a 16-year-old girl, Skylar, who has down syndrome and is now suing Chmerkovskiy for allegedly mocking her and causing her severe emotional distress, according to TMZ. Skylar claims that the photo was taken by someone in 2008 at a baseball game and originally posted with the heading, "Everything that's wrong with America." It became this particular meme that Chmerkovskiy posted in 2014.
Ever since the meme went viral, which Skylar claims is the "DWTS" pro and CBS News' fault, she has been humiliated. Her mom has even sent Chmerkovskiy several emails asking him to take it down.
"I am truly sorry for the lack of sensitivity...but on the same level I have to agree," Chmerkovskiy captioned the meme when he originally posted it, according to MSN. "Raising a child is the hardest thing in the world, I know, but being negligent when it comes to their nutrition is a crime. The lifelong obstacles and health issues you place on your child because of it can be devastating moving forward in their life. You're handicapping your kid, and they're defenseless, they don't know better, that's why you're there...anyway I'm just a childless preacher, but here's some food for thought. #nopunintended."
According to the lawsuit, the reason she has the weight issues in the first place is because of her condition. The suit alleges defamation, emotional distress and invasion of privacy. She wants $6 million from Chmerkovskiy and CBS News for posting the meme, having it go viral and causing her the humiliation and $600,000 from the original photographer.
"I couldn't believe it when I saw it," Skylar's sister Harley told WKRN, adding that she was "shocked" when she first saw the post on Facebook. "Makes me wonder what kind of people are out there. It makes me sick...With his celebrity and popularity, he should be helping kids like this, not bullying them and putting them down."
The photo has since been deleted from all of his accounts, but the tweet with the link to the original Instagram post is still there.