What did Mario Lopez say about Desiree Townsend? Actor gets served in a viral TikTok in connection to defamation lawsuit

Mario Lopez was recently served with a $10 million lawsuit by Desiree Townsend. The intellectual property paralegal has sued the TV personality for making alleged defamatory remarks regarding her on Instagram.

A video of Lopez getting served on June 15 (Father’s Day) has also gone viral on TikTok and other platforms. Mario is seen moving away from the camera as someone drops an envelope at the gate of his supposed residence. According to the clip posted by @powerclips53 on TikTok, someone behind the camera is heard saying,

“You’ve been served Mario. Jump… Drop it on the ground. You can drop it on the ground [directs their associate]. All right, lawsuit’s right there, Mario. You've been served. So, it’s there. Thank you [seemingly reacting to Mario Lopez’s words]. See you in court, Mario. Oh hey, Happy Father’s Day.”

The lawsuit filed by Desiree Townsend refers to an Instagram post from Mario Lopez that he posted on June 19, 2024. The Saved by the Bel actor reposted a viral interview of the plaintiff from 2009, which earned her the name “Flu Shot Cheerleader.” He branded Desiree’s actions in the video as an Oscar-worthy performance while captioning,

“There’s gotta be some kind of award for this performance… #MethodActor #OscarWorthy”

Mario Lopez’s comment seemingly implied that Townsend was faking the symptoms in the video, which the plaintiff found defamatory. According to the video, Desiree was being interviewed by a news channel after she claimed to have suffered from Dystonia. She asserted that getting a seasonal flu shot resulted in her being diagnosed with the rare disorder.

The news report talked about Townsend’s claims of having involuntary spasms and slurred speech. The video later switches to her being able to do her daily tasks without encountering any symptoms. According to her lawsuit, the IP paralegal claimed that she found the TV personality/actor’s video earlier this year in March and even commented on the post.

Desiree Townsend claims that Mario Lopez used her viral interview to boost his social media engagement

In her complaint, the plaintiff accused the TV host of using a false statement that damaged her personal and professional reputation. Townsend claimed that Lopez’s comment triggered “reputational harm, emotional distress, and online harassment against” her. The lawsuit accuses Mario of dehumanizing and defaming Desiree, a “woman living with a rare neurological disability.”

She further claimed that the Access Hollywood host used the video to boost his engagement on Instagram. Desiree Townsend alleged,

“Defendant used Plaintiff’s reputation as a tool to boost his reach and recover favor in Instagram’s unforgiving and opaque algorithm—one that routinely penalizes creators following sponsored content unless they provoke viral outage.”

Desiree claimed that Mario Lopez’s Instagram Reels got a broader reach after he posted about her on the platform. She also accused the TV host of running a smear campaign against her after she discovered the post and called him out. Townsend further claimed,

“The timing, tone, and scale of the attack support a reasonable inference that Lopez is familiar with deploying reputational warfare as a tool of intimidation, particularly when facing potential exposure.”

She also attached the screenshots of her comments under Mario Lopez’s post. In one of the comments, Desiree wrote,

“How you think it is appropriate to insinuate I am somehow lying or performing when I have the very same autoimmune disease as Celine Dion to millions of your followers is beyond appalling and defamatory.”

In another comment from the account @cheerleader4change, Desiree Townsend promised to file a lawsuit against Mario Lopez,

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“You are so f-ing gross @mariolopez. I have been constantly harassed for having a rare disease, I have considered suicide multiple times including this time last year and thank god I never saw this then because I may have done something I could not come back from. I hope you lose your job an never work again. AND I PROMISE YOU I will file a defamation case against you and your employers @accesshollywood.”

Townsend filed the lawsuit on June 13, 2025, and served Lopez two days later. In her complaint, she also compared Mario’s actions, referring to the smear campaign, to that of Harvey Weinstein. She also mentioned the r*pe allegations against Lopez, which were reported in the 1990s, per Los Angeles Times.

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