Richard Simmons Says Tabloids Defamed Him by Saying He Had a Sex Change

Richard Simmons, the celebrity health and fitness guru, sued two tabloid publications on Monday, saying they defamed him by publishing stories claiming that he had had a sex change.

Lawyers for Mr. Simmons, who disappeared from the public stage in 2014 but was thrust back into the spotlight this year when a podcast exploring his reclusiveness became a runaway hit, said in a libel lawsuit that The National Enquirer and Radar Online had acted “with calculated malice” by publishing stories that stated he had transitioned from male to female.

While Mr. Simmons, 68, supports transgender rights, he is entitled to fair reporting, his lawyers argued.

“Mr. Simmons, like every person in this nation, has a legal right to insist that he not be portrayed as someone he is not,” they said in the lawsuit. “Even the most ardent supporter of sexual autonomy and L.G.B.T.Q. rights is entitled to be portrayed in a manner that is truthful.”

The lawsuit, which The Hollywood Reporter wrote about earlier Monday, was filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court. Mr. Simmons is suing the companies on four counts of libel and one count of invasion of privacy.

The reports, published in June by The Enquirer and Radar, both properties of American Media Inc., which is also named in the lawsuit, had alleged that Mr. Simmons had a sex-change operation, was living under the name Fiona and had received breast implants and hormone treatment.

Mr. Simmons and his lawyers argue that the reports are false and stem from Mauro Oliveira, a man they accuse in the lawsuit of stalking and seeking to extort and blackmail Mr. Simmons over several years.

Mr. Oliveira, they argue, had at different times suggested to The Enquirer that Mr. Simmons withdrew from public life because he was “spiritually broken”; was held hostage by his housekeeper, whom Mr. Oliveira accused of practicing witchcraft; and had had a sex change.

He later repeated those claims publicly to Dan Taberski, an acquaintance of Mr. Simmons who created the six-episode podcast “Missing Richard Simmons.” The series, which Mr. Taberski presented as a sympathetic exploration of Mr. Simmons’s sudden reclusiveness, quickly became the most downloaded podcast on iTunes.

Following the podcast’s success, Mr. Simmons signed a licensing deal for which a representative suggested he may be willing to re-enter public life.

In response to the lawsuit, the tabloids published a joint statement on Monday accusing Mr. Simmons of hypocrisy.

“For decades, Richard Simmons has used his outrageous behavior to build his brand and his bank account,” the statement said. “For Mr. Simmons to now claim that his privacy has been invaded is hypocritical when his entire livelihood is based upon the public consumption of his image.”

The statement, published alongside photos of Mr. Simmons in a wig, necklace and dress, described his life as a “legitimate news story that demands coverage.”

Mr. Simmons’s lawyers acknowledge in the lawsuit that he has dressed in costume as a woman as part of his persona, but they suggest that is a far cry from a sex change.

In order to succeed in court, Mr. Simmons will have to prove that the tabloids published accounts that were false, defamatory and made with a reckless disregard of the truth.

But whether a court would deem the sex-change allegation a defamatory statement is unclear, said Samantha Barbas, a professor at the University at Buffalo School of Law who specializes in libel and privacy law.

In the past, courts have reached opposing conclusions on whether statements about sexual orientation constitute defamation, she said. And it is even less certain how they might approach an accusation of a sex change.

“It’s an untested area, and I think it would be an open question as to whether or not it’s capable of a defamatory meaning,” Ms. Barbas said.