Medieval Times may evoke images of old-world chivalry, but former employees say the popular dinner-theater chain has been plagued by allegations of sexual harassment, animal mistreatment and homophobia, according to a new explosive report from Vanity Fair.
About 2.5 million people visit the company’s 10 “castles” across North America each year, watching costumed knights on horseback compete for the queen’s favor in an elaborate, high-energy live performance.
However, a new investigation by Vanity Fair indicates that the family-friendly spectacle may conceal a far more troubling workplace culture.
Former employee Sean Quigley characterized the atmosphere behind the scenes as a crude “knights will be knights” environment. Other former workers described alleged sexual harassment, animal abuse and homophobia.
“I loved my job,” former show queen Erin Zapcic told the outlet. “But I couldn’t stand by while they mistreated us and the animals.”
Medieval Times has not responded to the report and did not immediately answer Oxygen’s request for comment.
Medieval Times Workers Report Suffering Significant Injuries on the Job
The company opened its first U.S. location in 1983 and has traditionally attracted actors, athletes and Renaissance enthusiasts hoping to bring their childhood fantasies to life before a live audience.
Former knight Jake Bowman, who once operated knight-themed Instagram and TikTok accounts to tap into the niche fan base, summed up the appeal this way: “Everything is really romanticized at the castle.”
But Bowman told Vanity Fair that his “fairy tale popped” after a horse kicked him in the back while he was working at the Dallas castle. His mental health deteriorated in the months after the injury, eventually forcing him to leave the job for several years.
Another former cast member, William Hainsworth, suffered a shattered leg when his horse crashed into a wall during a performance. The injury required multiple surgeries.
Hainsworth sued Medieval Times in November 2024, alleging that the company wrongfully fired him in 2023 after he reported safety concerns to senior management and backed a short-lived union seeking better conditions for workers and animals.
“I regret nothing,” he told The Los Angeles Times in 2024. “There’s a lot of shady stuff going on there.”
Medieval Times rejected Hainsworth’s claims in court filings, saying he was dismissed for “legitimate, non-retaliatory reasons,” Vanity Fair reported. The dispute is now being handled through arbitration.
Former Medieval Times Employees Report Sexual Harassment
Purnell Thompson, a former stable worker at the New Jersey location, described the workplace as resembling a “whole pseudo-fraternity thing,” alleging that new employees were subjected to hazing.
Angel Diamante, identified as the only openly gay knight at the Buena Park, California, castle, said the locker room was rife with “unbelievable misogyny and homophobia,” according to Vanity Fair.
Sean Quigley, a former lord chancellor at the Lyndhurst, New Jersey, location, made similar allegations. He said the all-male knights “would pull their pants and wait for someone to come around the corner,” the outlet reported.
Quigley also alleged that after he supported a female employee’s sexual-harassment complaint, the accused worker was transferred to another department with higher pay and faced no disciplinary action.
That was not the only sexual-harassment allegation described in the report. Lexie-Lynn Taylor, a former queen at the Buena Park castle, told Vanity Fair that one knight repeatedly harassed her and “wouldn’t take no for an answer.”
Taylor said that after she kissed a coworker at a holiday party, knights began referring to her as “ye old whore” and a “knight’s mattress.”
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Former queen Kate Farrell likewise recalled an incident in which a knight pushed her against her car and “pressed his hand on my crotch.”
Medieval Times Faces Accusations of Animal Abuse
The claims of abuse even extended to animals in the show.
In 2019, former employee Bethany Regan sued Medieval Times after she said she was wrongly terminated for protesting gender discrimination, harassment and animal abuse, OC Weekly reported.
She claimed in the suit that horses in the dinner show were whipped “unnecessarily and to the point where one of the horses had large welts over its body” while others bleed from the mouth, suffered from dehydration or experienced exhaustion, according to the suit.
The abuse resulted in the death of at least one horse, according to the court records.
Despite being once named Employee of the Month, Regan said she was fired in 2018 after speaking out. The company told her she was being let go after spreading untrue rumors, a claim in which she denied, the outlet reported. Medieval Times denied the allegations made against them in connection to the lawsuit.
The case was later settled out of court.
Former stable hand Sidney Setzer also alleged to Vanity Fair that, after training sessions, “the horses would come back with visible raised welts on their hindquarters from whipping,” adding there were “no limits” on how hard a trainer could work a horse.
“Horses are notoriously skittish animals,” a PETA spokesperson told Vanity Fair of the “couple of dozen” complaints it receives each year. “Medieval Times subjects them to loud music and strobe lights, and forces them to engage in raucous activities…sometimes under the threat of a whip.”
The lead trainer at the Buena Park castle has consistently denied abusing the animals.
As concerns about the toxic workplace conditions, animal treatment and low wages mounted, some of the employees at the Buena Park and Lyndhurst locations joined the American Guild of Variety Artists (AGVA) union.
In 2023, employees at the Buena Park location went on strike, but Medieval Times flew in replacement staff and the effort eventually fizzled out and AGVA pulled its support.
After returning to work months later, Zapcic alleged employees who had been on the picket line were forced to complete menial work or switched to different roles, she told The Los Angeles Times.
“Medieval Times has operated as a king lording over his kingdom for its entire 40 years of business,” she said. “It has never been accountable to anyone, and used a lot of intimidation to make people fall in line.”
She left the company in 2024.
Farrell filed a lawsuit against the company in 2026 alleging sexual harassment, retaliation and gender discrimination after claiming that she faced online harassment after joining the picket line.
She claimed in the lawsuit that after she reported the abuse to management, one manager retaliated by having a subordinate remove stitching from her costume creating a “wardrobe malfunction” in front of a live show.
Medieval Times has denied wrongdoing in their own court filings, insisting they took “all reasonable steps to prevent discrimination.”
The chain declined to comment on the report from Vanity Fair.