Zac Brown is accusing his estranged wife, Kelly Yazdi, of violating a confidentiality agreement and stealing confidential business information from him.
In court documents filed late last month and obtained by Us Weekly, Brown’s legal team alleges that Yazdi, 33, stole “confidential information” belonging to Zac Brown Collective (ZBC) after the pair announced their separation in December 2023 “knowing full well that she would soon be” leaving the business.
Brown’s lawyers claim that Yazdi took the alleged action “in an apparent attempt to gain leverage” over the country singer in their divorce proceedings.
“She forwarded to her personal email address highly sensitive documents concerning Mr. Brown and ZBC’s business,” the docs claim. “Ms. Yazdi stole documents concerning a yet-to-be-revealed song Mr. Brown was preparing with another artist. … She stole documents concerning Mr. Brown’s and ZBC’s financials, business valuations and other highly sensitive information she had no right to take and no legitimate reason for possessing.”
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Brown, 46, is seeking “injunctive relief and damages arising” from his ex’s “blatant violations of the confidentiality obligations” she allegedly owed him as a one-time employee of ZBC. The docs state that Yazdi was employed with ZBC from August 2022 to February 2024 and allegedly “forwarded nearly 200 emails containing highly confidential and proprietary information” between January and February of this year.
In July court documents filed by Yazdi, she claimed that not all aspects of her employee agreement with Brown were valid and binding.
The docs further claim that Yazdi embarked on a “defamatory social media campaign” against Brown “that is both false” and a direct violation of her confidentiality obligations. The docs then cited a May Instagram post in which Yazdi referenced a “rebirth” after allegedly experiencing “narcissistic abuse” that included “threatening,” “gaslighting” and telling her she couldn’t post bikini pictures or fitness videos.
Although Yazdi didn’t mention Brown by name, the musician’s lawyers argue that the post’s “content and timing” as well as the “inescapably public nature” of her and Brown’s marriage “would lead any observer to reasonably understand” that Yazdi was referring to Brown in the caption.
The docs note that Brown’s legal team has asked Yazdi to remove the post, citing her confidentiality obligations, but the post remains live.
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Yazdi’s Instagram post was far from the beginning of the exes’ bad blood, multiple sources exclusively tell Us. An insider close to Brown’s family claims that Yazdi “showed up unannounced” at Brown’s Georgia home days after he filed for divorce in January, “evading security cameras by parking her car out of sight and venturing through the woods.” A second source claims that Yazdi “still holds possession of [Brown’s] car and refuses to return it.”
In a statement shared with Us, Yazdi’s lawyers claimed that it’s “logical” to infer that the allegations about her showing up to Brown’s home and retaining his car “come from within [Brown’s] camp” and are “a designed PR effort launched as soon as Kelly broke her silence” in order to “intimidate her.” Yazdi’s attorneys added that she will “continue to defend herself and speak the truth lawfully.” Us Weekly has reached out to Brown’s team for comment.
Yazdi also spoke out via Instagram on Thursday, August 8, writing that she hasn’t been posting out of “fear that anything I publish will result in more legal claims being brought against me to suppress my freedom of speech” and claiming that Brown unexpectedly asked her for a divorce via Zoom.
“Kelly’s assertion that Zac told her unexpectedly over Zoom that he wanted a divorce is inaccurate,” a third source exclusively tells Us. “They were married in August 2023 and Zac told her he wanted a divorce in person the night before Thanksgiving at his home in Georgia.”
Yazdi also claimed in the Thursday Instagram video that Brown used footage from the pair’s November 2023 wedding party in the February music video for his song “Beautiful Drug (feat. Avicii) – Remix” without her consent “for commercial gain and to demean my integrity.” She alleged that she was “replaced in the video with a look-alike model” who represented her in a “false” light by acting out taking drugs and drinking alcohol.
A source close to the former couple exclusively tells Us that the footage of the model whom Yazdi claims resembles her was shot in 2018 before Brown met Yazdi. The insider also claims that Yazi was interested in playing the lead actress in the video and “sent correspondence to the videographer and production team.”
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As for Yazdi’s claims about her wedding party footage, the source alleges that Yazdi was “aware that video from their wedding party in Nashville with people dancing in a bar was going to be used as background for the ‘Beautiful Drug’ video as she had attendees sign releases indicating whether they were OK with their images being used in the video or not.”
As the duo’s messy divorce continues, a judge ruled in July that the 38-page prenuptial agreement Yazdi and Brown signed prior to their August 2023 wedding is valid despite Yazdi’s objections. Brown claims that Yazdi has already received significant benefits under the terms of the agreement including a salary for her employment at ZBC and having the mortgage on her Hawaii home paid off, despite only being married for four months.
Yazdi previously attempted to delay the enforcement of the prenup, seeking more information about Brown’s finances. Brown’s lawyers noted in court documents that Yazdi and Brown were in a two-year relationship prior to tying the knot and claimed Yazdi was “well aware” of Brown’s finances prior to signing the prenup.
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