Acclaimed Canadian Oscar-winning filmmaker pays his rape accuser nearly $2-million settlement

Canadian screenwriter, producer, and director Paul Haggis, who has been behind some of Hollywood’s most acclaimed Oscar-winning films, paid nearly $2 million to a woman who accused him of raping her after a film premiere.

Notification of the payment as full settlement in the case, filed in a New York court on Friday, shows Haggis paid his accuser, Haleigh Breest, an amount significantly less than the US$10 million jury verdict against him in 2023.

Breest’s lawyer did not respond to several requests for comment.