Grammy-winning artist Chappell Roan announced Monday that she had left the talent agency led and founded by Casey Wasserman, who exchanged flirtatious emails with Ghislaine Maxwell, Jeffrey Epstein’s longtime companion, as the repercussions of the Epstein files seep into the realms of sports and culture.

“As of today, I am no longer represented by Wasserman,” Roan, known for hits like “Pink Pony Club” and “Good Luck, Babe!,” wrote on Instagram. “I hold my teams to the highest standards and have a duty to protect them as well. No artist, agent or employee should ever be expected to defend or overlook actions that conflict so deeply with our own moral values.”

In her statement, Roan did not directly name Maxwell or Epstein, the convicted sex offender who killed himself in 2019 while in jail awaiting a criminal trial on sex-trafficking charges.

“This decision reflects my belief that meaningful change in our industry requires accountability and leadership that earns trust,” Roan wrote.

Wasserman Chairs Los Angeles Organizing Committee

Wasserman, who is also the chair of the Los Angeles Organizing Committee for the 2028 Olympic Games, exchanged emails with Maxwell in 2003, according to the Justice Department documents on Epstein released last month.

The communications occurred while Wasserman was married with a young family, and before Maxwell was convicted in 2021 on federal charges that she conspired with Epstein to sexually abuse teenage girls.

In the emails, Maxwell offered to give Wasserman a massage that would “drive a man wild.” In another exchange, Wasserman told her: “I think of you all the time. So, what do I have to do to see you in a tight leather outfit?”

In a statement this month, after the emails became public, Wasserman said: “I deeply regret my correspondence with Ghislaine Maxwell which took place over two decades ago, long before her horrific crimes came to light.”

Since the revelations, Wasserman has been facing mounting pressure to remove himself from his talent agency and to step down from the Olympic organizing committee.

Roan Not the Only Artist Speaking Out

While Roan is the most high profile artist to cut ties with Wasserman’s agency — she has more than 35 million monthly listeners on Spotify — she is not the only artist speaking out.

“We are demanding for Wasserman to remove himself and his name from the agency,” Lili Trifilio, the guitarist and vocalist of Beach Bunny, another Wasserman client, wrote on the band’s Instagram page this week.

“‘Deep regrets’ are not enough,” Trifilio wrote, referring to a line from Wasserman’s statement, in which he denied having a relationship with Epstein but acknowledged that he had taken a trip on his plane in 2002. “I am terribly sorry for having any association with either of them,” he said.

Trifilio called Wasserman’s exchanges with Maxwell “abhorrent and disturbing on every level.”

A North Carolina indie-rock band, Wednesday, also announced this week that it would leave Wasserman. “Continuing to be represented by a company led by and named after Casey Wasserman goes against our values and cannot continue,” the band wrote on Instagram. “For the sake of his staff we hope that he steps down from the company and it is rebranded.”

The Wasserman agency did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday.

In an open letter to the agency, Bethany Cosentino, the frontwoman of the band Best Coast, which has been represented by the Wasserman agency since 2021, wrote that she had asked the agency to remove her name and her band’s name from its website, and called for Wasserman to step down.

“As an artist represented by Wasserman, I did not consent to having my name or career tied to someone with this kind of association to exploitation,” Cosentino wrote.

Other prominent musicians represented by Wasserman include Kendrick Lamar, Coldplay, Joni Mitchell, Lorde, and Tyler, The Creator.

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This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

By Claire Moses
c. 2026 The New York Times Company