Janel Grant Receives Advocacy In Action Award From Connecticut Alliance To End Sexual Violence

As noted before, former WWE employee Janel Grant filed a lawsuit in January of 2024 against former WWE/TKO Executive Chairman Vince McMahon accusing McMahon of committing sex trafficking and sexual abuse towards her during her time in the company. Grant filed an amended lawsuit in February of 2025 detailing new evidence and claims against McMahon, WWE, and others. Grant had filed a memorandum this past April containing additional details in her allegations against McMahon, WWE President Nick Khan, former WWE Head of Talent Relations John Laurinaitis, Brock Lesnar, and WWE itself. This lawsuit was officially voluntarily dismissed with prejudice this past July after McMahon, Grant, and WWE’s request to move the lawsuit from public to private arbitration was approved. Grant had suffered a serious fall accident at her home in either late July or early August resulting in hospitalization with a concussion, broken ribs, and a lung hemorrhage.

Grant recently accepted the 2026 Advocacy in Action Award from the Connecticut Alliance to End Sexual Violence. This was Grant’s first public appearance since her serious fall accident.

Grant reflected on Instagram about her appearance at the event and the speech she gave in acceptance of her award.

“Part One: It was a miracle that I gave remarks at all.

Thanks to @endsexualviolence_ct, it’s a preserved memory that I can share. As a way of inviting you to experience the moment as I felt it, I’m sharing the story in two parts. Part One is what I wrote. Part Two is the video of what I actually said and the tidal wave that hit me before I uttered the first word.

– The ability to think, feel and read while I’m still healing injuries, especially this humdinger of a concussion, felt like swimming against the tide.

– Every emotion hit me at once while I took in the energy of a room full of people.

– This was the 7th time I’ve been outside this year.

– I was overwhelmed by the realization that I almost died, which meant this moment – this speech – was almost given by someone else in my memory.

– To summarize my state of being in one word: GRATEFUL.

Thank goodness for the people in that room. You can count on them. They are the presence that helps, cares, and supports people. They helped me. They are not only committed to taking action in the community, they are the mission-oriented souls who keep the faith, even when the horizon remains hidden from view. They are committed to supporting human dignity and creating change together that makes the world safer and better. Because it’s true. We are in this together.

What I said/wrote is a tribute to them and to this community that has changed and saved my life.

A few final details to complete this immersive picture: I didn’t hear clinking plates. I definitely heard – and reacted to – audible gasps after I said, “floating cabinets” and while detailing the injuries I’m healing from.

After the remarks concluded, I remained standing for about an hour. It’s been a long time since I’ve done that. As the exhaustion began to set in, I hobbled to a bench that my friend spotted to sit, rest and take the “remember when” photo that I shared later that day…a visual that celebrates hope, human connection and peaceful tomorrows.”

In a follow-up post, Grant posted a video of the speech she gave at the event detailing what she has endured over the years in her life and her being a survivor of sexual abuse.

“I’m so grateful to be here. There’s a theme right now in the world. A unifier around power. Powers that be, powers at play. Gaining it, winning it. Inner power, use of power, cell phone power. Power might instill in our minds an idea that nothing in the world ever changes, ever really changes. Everything is stuck until the day something looks and sounds different.

The power synchronicity, as I once told Beth, is when the right people meet at the right time, and opportunities pop up that never existed before. Mountains can move. A new path suddenly emerges and is lit. A village can form where there formerly wasn’t one to save a life. Around six weeks ago, that life saved was mine.

What I’ve survived is one, two, three, four years of across-the-board life wreck, like physical health, mental health, my support system, my safety, my security, my place in the world, just stability and everything gone. Finances gone. I’ve been worried about an accident happening to either me or my cat because I’m alone, and she’s all I have for company.

And then around six weeks ago, my worst fear happened, and the accident happened to me. I tripped on a carpet runner, a hard one, and I went face forward into a wooden bed frame and wall unit with floating cabinets.

I’m currently healing from a concussion, broken ribs, a busted-up face. I bit through my lip. And based on what’s been pieced together, I took a series of substances of unknown proportions each day, and I’m very lucky to have a pulse right now.

To meet the alliance, to advocate for a legislative bill, to join Instagram, to connect to people at all has been an absolute miracle. It’s changed my life, and it saved my life. And having that perspective is really powerful because the people who just saved my life weeks ago.

Having compassion, patience, and human kindness So anytime I hear a sentiment that nothing in the world ever changes I’m gonna laugh and clutch my ribs because I know for a fact how much it actually has changed. There’s a power in acknowledging multiple truths that exist in any given moment. Everything from my bones to my bank account is still broken. Any problem I had yesterday is still gonna be there tomorrow, but I’m standing in gratitude, and it feels like this joyous, hard-won, defiant-against-the-odds, honest celebration of life and of the power of the alliance because I’m still here.”

Transcript h/t: F4WOnline.com