Janel Grant has revealed a disturbing allegation from her childhood, claiming she was sexually abused years before Vince McMahon or WWE ever entered her life. During a conversation with POST Wrestling published September 22, 2026, Grant said she was around 11 or 12 years old when an adult groom at a horse barn allegedly cornered and touched her inappropriately.
Grant grew up riding horses through 4-H before later working as a catch rider, and she described the barn as one of the places where she found an escape. According to Grant, that changed after the alleged encounter with the adult employee.
“That’s where I kind of experienced sexual abuse in the first place when I was a kid… When you’re backed into a corner by, let’s say, a groom when you’re a kid, and something inappropriate happens, and you speak up and say something because you’re so uncomfortable, you don’t know what to do. And when you speak up, when I spoke up, the groom, the first time it happened, he stayed in his role because they needed him… So basically, he kept his job despite what I said happened. Getting, you know, cornered into a stall and inappropriate touching, it just didn’t matter. He kept his job. I was told to stay away from him. So the place that was my heaven became my hell.”
Grant said she raised the alleged incident with the barn owner, but claims the man remained in his position. She said she was instead told to stay away from him, leaving her to continue spending time at a place she loved while avoiding the person she accused.
“I realized if I say something, my life will feel worse.”
Grant also described what she remembers going through mentally as a child while trying to decide whether remaining around the horses was worth having to avoid the man.
“And somehow, again, I’m a kid, valuing: ‘But I want to be here with this group of people with this barn, but this guy comes with that package, and they’re not going to let him go, but they’re going to let me stay if I just tolerate it and avoid him.’ And that’s a lot to put on the shoulders of, you know, a kid in middle school.”
The childhood allegation surfaced as Grant opened up extensively about her life before WWE and the events that eventually brought her into Vince McMahon’s orbit. Grant later accused McMahon of sexual assault, coercion and sex trafficking in a federal lawsuit, accusations McMahon has denied while maintaining that their relationship was consensual.
Ringside News has extensively covered the Janel Grant and Vince McMahon legal battle, including the allegations against McMahon and the fallout that followed throughout WWE. The public federal case was eventually closed in July 2026 after the parties agreed to move the dispute into private arbitration.
Grant’s latest comments reveal that the allegations surrounding WWE are not the first time she says she experienced sexual abuse. According to Grant, that history reaches all the way back to childhood and a horse barn that she says went from being a place she loved to what she described as “hell.”
What do you make of Janel Grant opening up about her claim that she was sexually abused as a child? Let us know your thoughts and feedback in the comments.
