McMahon born is a professional wrestling promoter who bought his father Vincent J. Under McMahon's ownership, WWF underwent an aggressive national expansion during the s professional wrestling boom which effectively made the WWF β later renamed to World Wrestling Entertainment, and later still, simply WWE β the leading professional wrestling promotion in the United States and, later, the world.
As a result of the investigation, McMahon retired in July as chief executive officer of WWE, but still remained its largest shareholder. Grant alleged that the misconduct continued until , at which point McMahon's wife Linda β a former WWE executive and politician β discovered the affair and threatened to divorce him.
Grant also alleged that key figures in WWE were fully aware of the conduct, and actively sought to conceal McMahon's wrongdoing. On January 26, , snack food brand Slim Jim β a long-time sponsor of WWE, and sponsor of the Royal Rumble premium live event that was due to take part on January 27 β announced that it was withdrawing its sponsorship of the event.
On February 1, , co-defendant John Laurinaitis' lawyer Edward Brennan told Vice News that Laurinaitis was also a victim of McMahon's coercive control , and said that Laurinaitis would defend himself on that basis. On March 11, , Front Office Sports published an article which revealed the identities of four unnamed corporate figures referenced in the lawsuit, which Grant's attorney Ann Callis confirmed was correct: [ 22 ].
On April 1, , the New York Post published a purported "love letter" from Grant to McMahon which was dated to December 24, , which was taken from Grant's work laptop during the course of the internal investigation. Callis alleged that the love letter was written under duress, whereas McMahon's attorney Jessica Taub Rosenberg said that the letter was proof that Grant was not coerced into writing it, or that she was assaulted by McMahon.
