Realtor Sues Ellen DeGeneres for Allegedly Using Her Name, Titi, to Make a Breast Joke

A Nigerian woman named Titi Pierce, who works as a realtor in the US, has filed a Federal lawsuit against US TV host, Ellen DeGeneres for making fun of her name, Titi, on the “What is wrong with this ad” segment of her show aired which aired on February 22nd, 2016.

During the show, Ellen displayed an advert sign bearing Titi’s name and cellphone number just after a sign reading “Nipple Convalescent Home,” was shown to her audience. While showing the sign with Titi’s name, Ellen paused and said, “Titty Pierce, sounds like she might have spent some time in that nipple home, I don’t know,”. Ellen referred to the name as Tee Tee (Tiddy) meaning Boobs.

According to Titi, she received many ridiculing calls from strangers after the show aired in February and a repeat of the broadcast in April. She said she suffered major emotional stress after Ellen’s joke aired.

Titi said she called the show on February 24th and March 14th to complain about the correct pronunciation of her name and that her personal cellphone number should be blurred out before they aired it. At some point, her number was blurred on a video of the segment posted on the show’s Facebook page but on April 15th, the show was aired on TV again and the number still was visible.

In her court papers, Titi alleged the show invaded her privacy by airing her name and personal cellphone number while also intentionally inflicting emotional distress. She is seeking unspecified monetary damages and for Warner Bros. to be forced to stop airing the segment on TV, the internet or social media.

According to her attorney, Stacey Godfrey Evans, Titi wants to “stand up and say this is wrong and this is not how we treat people. We need to be more thoughtful than this. She’s a real person with real feelings. She is a private, proud person, and she was humiliated on national television not once, but twice.”

Titi’s mother gave her the Nigerian name which means “flower,” after consulting a Nigerian book of names shared with her by a friend. The name is pronounced “TEE TEE.”