The lawsuit, which Haleigh Breest filed in the early months of the #MeToo movement, said that in 2013, Paul Haggis (pic) invited her to his loft in New York, where he forced her to give him oral sex, penetrated her digitally and raped her. Photo: The New York Times Company
Oscar-winning film-maker Paul Haggis has agreed to pay nearly US$2mil (RM8.1mil) to settle a lawsuit from a former film industry publicist who in 2022 won a rape trial against him.
The lawsuit, which Haleigh Breest filed in the early months of the #MeToo movement, said that in 2013, Haggis invited her to his loft in New York, where he forced her to give him oral sex, penetrated her digitally and raped her.
The 72-year-old Canadian, who won Oscars for the movie Crash (2005), which he co-wrote and directed, was initially ordered to pay her at least US$7.5mil.
The settlement, which was signed in December 2025, said both parties had “amicably resolved all disputes” between them and that Breest would file a legal document known as a satisfaction of the amended judgment, indicating that the required amount had been paid. Under the terms of the settlement, he agreed to pay US$1.9mil.
Haggis, who did not face criminal charges in the case, maintained that the sexual encounter with Breest had been consensual.
After a 15-day trial in the Manhattan Supreme Court in the fall of 2022, a six-person jury sided with her, finding him liable for rape. She had testified that she had felt pressured to go to his apartment and have a drink that night because of his stature in Hollywood.
At the time, she said in a statement that she was grateful for the opportunity to seek justice and accountability in court. Ms Priya Chaudhry, a lawyer for Haggis, said at the time that the defence was “disappointed and shocked” by the trial’s outcome.
During the trial, lawyers for Breest sought to convince jurors that her communications shortly after the sexual encounter made it clear she had viewed it as an assault. The defence zeroed in on messages from her that took a more light-hearted tone, along with others that expressed her desire to see Haggis again.
His lawyers also argued that she was lying about the encounter to extract money from him during a time when the #MeToo movement had heightened public sensitivity around sexual assault allegations. They pointed to a text in which she told a friend: “I need to get something out of this at least.”
Breest began her case against Haggis shortly after he denounced Harvey Weinstein, the disgraced American film producer, as numerous accounts of his sexual harassment and abuse were published in The New York Times.
During the trial, she testified that Haggis was the “definition of hypocrisy”. - ©2026 The New York Times Company
