UPDATE 1/20 11:20 a.m. — Doja Cat’s brother, Raman Dalithando Dlamini, has broken his silence on the musician’s lawsuit and denied the accusations against him.
“Yes, [I’m denying it],” Dlamini told The Shade Room on Thursday, January 18. “I haven’t seen anybody in years. What are you talking about? There’s no story.”
Dlamini also shut down the accusations that he had “gotten violent” with their mother.
The original story continues below:
Doja Cat is allegedly being physically and verbally abused by her brother.
The singer’s mom, Deborah Elizabeth Sawyer, filed for a temporary restraining order against Doja’s brother, Raman Dalithando Dlamini, per legal documents obtained by Us Weekly that were filed on Friday, January 12, in Los Angeles Superior Court.
In the filing, she also listed Doja, 28, as someone who needed protection from Raman, 30.
TMZ reported that Sawyer alleged that Doja’s teeth were knocked out by Raman, further claiming that he had given her cuts and bruises and destroyed and stole some of her property. She claimed that Raman was verbally abusive toward Doja “in a very degrading and demeaning manor [sic]” and that he had made the “Say So” singer feel “unsafe and traumatized.”
Sawyer also alleged that Raman physically abused her and threatened her over the past year, citing an incident that occurred earlier this month.
Sawyer was granted court-ordered protection from Raman and a hearing is pending for a permanent restraining order. (Sawyer has also allegedly had a restraining order against her son in the past, but it has since expired.)
The judge noted that the “Paint the Town Red” singer would have to file her own request for a restraining order.
Us has reached out to Doja’s rep for comment and is still trying to reach Raman.
Since releasing her first EP, Purr!, in 2014, Doja has had her fair share of ups and downs through the years.
In July 2023, Doja faced backlash after she slammed her fan base’s unofficial nickname, “Kittenz.”
“My fans don’t name themselves s—t,” she wrote in a since-deleted Threads post. “If you call yourself a ‘kitten’ or f—king ‘kittenz’ that means you need to get off your phone and get a job and help your parents with the house.”
The previous year, Doja was engaged in an online feud with Noah Schnapp after he leaked their messages where she discussed her crush on his costar Joseph Quinn.
While saying that young people “say dumb s—t,” Doja added that the Stranger Things star’s actions were “borderline snake s–t,” and “like weasel s–t.” Later that month, Schnapp, 19, said he apologized to Doja and the two made amends.
Despite this, Doja seemingly lost over 200,000 Instagram followers, with Us Weekly reporting at the time that her follower count had dropped from 24.34 million to 24.14 million.
After Doja was linked to comedian J. Cyrus in November 2022, her fans pointed out her new beau’s past controversies, including manipulating some of his Twitch site moderators. He later seemingly apologized for his past actions in a since-deleted social media post, calling himself “careless” and “disrespectful.”
When a fan account shared a post about Cyrus’ allegations, Doja clapped back in a since-deleted Instagram comment, writing, “I WANT YALL TO READ THIS COMMENT AND TAKE IT AS A MESSAGE. I DONT GIVE A F—K WHAT YOU THINK ABOUT MY PERSONAL LIFE I NEVER HAVE AND NEVER WILL GIVE A F—K WHAT YOU THINK ABOUT ME OR MY PERSONAL LIFE GOODBYE AND GOOD RIDDANCE.”
