New Delhi, June 17 -- Author Amy Griffin sued a former classmate for defamation on Monday, saying the woman's statements in a New York Times story and a subsequent lawsuit alleging Griffin appropriated her stories of sexual abuse for her bestselling 2025 memoir "The Tell" are false in "every element."

Griffin's lawsuit, filed in federal court in Nevada, says that in 2025 her former middle school classmate "told The New York Times - and through it, the world - that Amy Griffin is a fraud and a thief."

The lawsuit says that in the woman's telling, "Mrs. Griffin stole the rape of another woman and built a bestseller on it."

A Times spokesperson said the lawsuit misrepresents its story and reporting. The former classmate said her account w...