The son of the Washington Post’s late publisher Katharine Graham allegedly kicked his longtime personal assistant to the curb because she was too old, according to a lawsuit.
Valrie Riddick was a loyal helper to Stephen Graham for 24 years — once even hauling her laptop and a printer to the hospital to keep working while she underwent emergency surgery, she claimed in court papers.
But in December, Graham decided he was “retiring” the 72-year-old — then forced her to work for the next three months and train her thirty-something replacement, Riddick contended in her Manhattan Supreme Court filing.
Riddick was stunned, since she planned to keep working “for pressing economic reasons,” including paying for her children’s college and renovating the home she intended to live in when she retired, she said in the litigation.
“Rather than take her concerns and employment needs seriously, and completely discounting her 24 years of dedicated and effective work, Mr. Graham was more interested in gaslighting her into believing she had somehow wanted to abruptly lose her job at 72-years-old,” Riddick said her age discrimination case.
Graham, also 72, a professor of English literature at Bard College, had Riddick by his side “through two marriages [and] over multiple homes,” including a Manhattan townhouse, a home in Nantucket and a farm at the Graham family home in Virginia, she said. His household staff featured 10 employees, including housekeepers, a chef, a chauffeur, a gardener, a yacht captain, “and more,” according to court papers.
Riddick is seeking unspecified damages.
“We’re moving for expedited trial preference to get Ms. Riddick’s case before a jury of working people as soon as possible. In age discrimination cases, justice delayed is justice denied,” said her lawyer, Shane Seppinni.
