The onetime “Queen” of a Medieval Times in Southern California is suing the popular dinner theater chain over retaliation she claims she endured after reporting pervasive workplace harassment, culminating in a purposeful “wardrobe malfunction” allegedly orchestrated by her supervisor.

Kaitlyn Farrell, 34, worked at the Renaissance reenactment’s Buena Park “castle,” where she showed up for her shifts with “an earnest desire to entertain guests and serve as a positive, uplifting influence within the family-friendly environment that Medieval Times publicly purports to foster,” according to a civil complaint obtained by The Independent.

However, it says management not only neglected to investigate the “objectively intolerable” work environment, but in fact “actively escalated the abuse.”

On top of what the complaint describes as continuing sexual misconduct, cyberstalking and doxxing, it accuses Farrell’s boss of sending her over the edge via “targeted, retaliatory bullying designed to humiliate [her] on the job.”

“As subsequently corroborated by a subordinate employee, [Farrell’s supervisor] explicitly ordered the subordinate to remove the stitching from Ms. Farrell’s performance dresses,” the complaint states. “This calculated sabotage of Ms. Farrell’s wardrobe was maliciously intended to cause wardrobe malfunctions in front of live audiences and severely exacerbate Ms. Farrell’s insecurity and emotional distress while on stage.”

The term “wardrobe malfunction” entered the popular lexicon after pop star Justin Timberlake coined it in 2004 while apologizing for exposing Janet Jackson’s breast during the halftime show at Super Bowl XXXVIII.

Attorney Jessica Ludd, who is representing Farrell, declined to discuss the case beyond what’s in the complaint, telling The Independent, “We look forward to proving the allegations in court.”

A Medieval Times spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.

Medieval Times bills itself as “the No. 1 dinner attraction in North America, transporting guests to 11th-Century Spain with an epic tournament and feast.”

“In a competition of skill and hand-to-hand combat, six knights battle to win the ultimate honor ­– being named Defender of the Realm,” the company’s website tells prospective guests. “There’s nothing like hearing the roar of the crowd cheering for their knight. With imaginative storytelling featuring a regal Queen, we elate audiences as they devour a 4-course meal. The fanfare of Medieval Times truly can’t be rivaled.”

Farrell, who lives in the Anaheim area, began her stint as Queen at the Medieval Times castle in Buena Park on May 31, 2019, according to her complaint.

It says she quickly encountered a workplace rife with gender discrimination, that “behind the scenes,” Medieval Times “maintained a baseline culture of treating its male and female Cast Members differently.”

“Within this two-tiered environment, unwanted romantic advances toward female Cast Members were normalized, and Defendants actively tolerated their male Cast Members making inappropriate passes at female colleagues,” the complaint states. “When confronted regarding male Cast Members exhibiting negative, gender-based behaviors toward female staff, Defendants’ management exhibited a highly dismissive attitude.”

In one instance, Farrell claims she notified the castle’s head horse trainer that one of his employees was behaving inappropriately towards her, according to the complaint. It says the head trainer replied that his underling “probably just has a crush on you.”

But when another female employee reported being harassed by the same horse trainer, prompting an internal investigation, Farrell was asked to participate, the complaint continues. When the allegedly problematic horse trainer found out, he became outwardly hostile towards Farrell, which the complaint says “placed her in physical danger’ while interacting with the animals.

The complaint points to a performance following the investigation, during which the trainer in question “deliberately brought a horse out late” in order to throw Farrell’s timing off.

“He then aggressively verbally abused Ms. Farrell on the floor, yelling and cursing at her and chiding her regarding her knowledge of the horse,” the complaint states. “This occurred minutes before Ms. Farrell was to go on stage before an audience.”

At the same time, Medieval Times management “completely failed” to protect Farrell, and “took no steps to ensure [her] safety,” according to the complaint.

In November 2022, the Buena Park knights, chancellors, squires and queens voted to unionize, and called a strike in February 2023 for better pay, better working conditions, better treatment of animals in the cast, and to protest the company’s takedown of the bargaining unit’s TikTok account, which management got removed on copyright grounds.

“They’ve been censoring us, they’ve been censoring our supporters on social media,” Farrell told CBS News at the time. “They’re just trying to silence us because they know they’re not treating us fairly.”

Once the strike was underway, Farrell became the “primary target of a severe, pervasive, and highly sexualized cyberbullying campaign,” according to the complaint, which says two anonymous social media accounts – one on Instagram, one on Twitter – “continuously, and repeatedly, sexually harassed, doxed and defamed” her with “extreme and outrageous” posts.

The unnamed perpetrators “routinely posted manipulated and degrading images of Ms. Farrell,” such as photoshopping her face onto the bodies of “semi-nude cartoon characters depicted in simulated sexual positions,” and an image of Farrell on the picket line with a caption reading, “Better than a Schwinn,” to imply she enjoyed being ridden “like a bicycle,” according to the complaint.

A number of the posts “bore undeniable indications” of involvement by Medieval Times management, the complaint alleges.

“Crucially, the account… publicly broadcast private, sensitive information that Ms. Farrell had explicitly disclosed in strict confidence to her managers at Medieval Times, demonstrating that the perpetrators leveraged their access to confidential company information to further the retaliatory cyberbullying campaign against Ms. Farrell,” it explains.

Soon, the online rancor allegedly transmogrified into real-life stalking. While Farrell was moonlighting as a character at Disneyland, the complaint says “several” unnamed Medieval Times employees showed up at the park, crowded into her personal space, and “physically stared her down in a threatening manner while she was effectively trapped and unable to leave her post.”

“This severe intimidation caused Ms. Farrell to fear for her physical safety, prompting Disneyland management to remove her from the stage and Disneyland’s online crime division to immediately intervene and investigate,” according to the complaint.

Nine months later, the strike ended and Farrell returned to Medieval Times, the complaint states. She immediately scheduled a meeting with Medieval Times officials to report the harassment, the complaint goes on.

But rather than making an attempt to mitigate the situation, the sitaution got worse for Farrell, the complaint alleges. It says Medieval Times’ legal counsel sent Farrell a formal letter “explicitly dismissing the sexualized cyberbullying, and confirming in writing that Medieval Times would take no action regarding the sexual harassment and the physical stalking incident.”

It additionally minimized the sexualized images of Farrell posted online as “protected speech” under the National Labor Relations Act, and emphasized that “no discipline [would] be issued” to anyone involved.

That’s when Farrell’s supervisor hatched the alleged plot to engineer an embarrassing “wardrobe malfunction,” according to the complaint, which does not provide details of how Farrell discovered her dresses had been compromised.

From there, management continued to make life difficult for Farrell, canceling her prime evening shifts, the complaint states.

“In an act of extreme hypocrisy, management restricted Ms. Farrell solely to an early matinee show featuring a script that specifically condemns cyberbullying and explaining its destructive nature,” according to the complaint.

All told, it says being at work became so unendurable for Farrell that she was forced to quit in February 2024 – known in legal parlance as a “constructive discharge.”

The following month, the fledgling Medieval Times union disbanded.

In a June 15 answer to Farrell’s allegations, Medieval Times denied any wrongdoing, said it took “all reasonable steps to prevent discrimination,” and that her complaint should be dismissed in its entirety, with prejudice.

Farrell is now seeking monetary damages for lost wages and emotional distress, in an amount to be determined at trial, plus attorneys’ fees and court costs.