Celebrity fitness trainer Mario Godiva filed a lawsuit against luxury gym chain Equinox Holdings last week, claiming he was wrongfully terminated after complaining about racial and disability discrimination.
Godiva, 44, who is Black, made a name for himself in New York as a trainer specializing in Kangoo Jumps — spring-loaded, shock-absorbing exercise shoes. He developed a loyal following, and his rigorous, innovative training techniques were featured on TV and media outlets, including the “Today” show, “The Tyra Banks Show” and ABC News, according to his lawsuit filed in San Francisco Superior Court.
In 2010, Equinox, which bills itself as the place “where luxury and fitness meet,” hired Godiva as a group fitness instructor at its Manhattan location, where he says he worked for the next four years in a “dream job” working with celebrities and other motivated clients in high-end facilities.
He was assigned coveted prime-time classes between 4 p.m. and 7 p.m., where he led well-attended, back-to-back sessions of cycling, barre/Pilates, yoga, and high-intensity interval training, and his talent and reputation grew.
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He also began serving as a media spokesman and public face for the company, appearing on TV and at a variety of promotional and fitness-related events, for which he was not given extra compensation, the complaint says.
Racial Discrimination and Unequal Pay
Things took a turn on September 21, 2015, when an Equinox member called him a racial slur during a cycling class. Godiva told Atlanta Black Star that he had tapped the member’s spin cycle console to encourage the man to work a little harder, and the man took offense, calling him, “you f—king [N-word].”
Godiva said he was shocked, and “froze” in his tracks, but managed to teach the rest of the class. He then immediately reported the incident to his manager. Getting no response after a few days, he elevated his concerns to a regional manager, who also did not investigate the matter or, he says, ever talk to or reprimand the offending member.
Deeply upset and appalled by the overtly racially discriminatory conduct, his lawsuit says that by failing to address the issue, the company was “endorsing the member’s conduct as acceptable.”
Over time, Godiva began to recognize “a troubling contradiction between Equinox’s public image and the internal workplace culture,” the complaint says. While the company publicly embraced him and “appeared eager to showcase diversity outwardly through his visibility and success,” Godiva found the company’s commitment to diversity and inclusion “largely superficial and performative in practice.”
One of the chief areas of alleged racial discrimination Godiva complains of concerns pay.
During the first four years of his employment, Godiva was paid an hourly rate of $8.00 an hour and $55 per class, or $16,600 per year. That was much less than he’d earned at Crunch Fitness, a global gym chain where he had previously worked for seven years and earned $85 per class.
Starting in 2014, he received modest raises that bumped his salary to $22,880 by 2015, but for the next nine years he didn’t receive a single raise, unlike his white, less qualified colleagues, the lawsuit contends. His final raise came in 2024, when Equinox increased his hourly rate to $19.00 and his class rate to $75, bringing his annual earnings to $40,000.
Despite more than 15 years of hard work and dedication, the lawsuit says, he still earned less per class at Equinox than other white instructors, and less than he’d earned at his old gym more than a decade earlier.
Godiva told Atlanta Black Star his knowledge of the pay discrepancy is based on conversations he had with Equinox colleagues. His attorney, Chambord Benton-Hayes, said documentation of the racial disparities in pay rates at the company will be established through discovery.
“This is called racial tokenism,” Benton-Hayes said. “Equinox showcased Mario to signal their diversity, but behind the scenes treated him unfairly and considered him a second-class employee.”
Loss of Seniority After a Health Scare
In early 2021, when Godiva was laid off during the COVID-19 pandemic, the director of group fitness at Equinox, Rachel Sibony, assured him that upon his return he would retain the same seniority and status as he previously held.
But that didn’t happen, the lawsuit says. When he was rehired in February 2022 at the company’s San Diego location, Equinox treated him as a new hire. Though he requested double-session classes to make his one-hour commute more manageable and efficient, his request was denied, and those double-sessions were assigned to white instructors.
Godiva made a complaint about his unfair treatment, which he asserted was race-based.
In June 2022, Godiva took a week off work after experiencing debilitating hip pain. At that time, he disclosed to a manager, Ashley Erickson, that he had survived a bout with liver cancer in 2014 but still had underlying health conditions and significant health complications. He says Erickson continued demanding additional medical clearance documentation and subjected him to “heightened administrative scrutiny.”
From June 29, 2022, to July 14, 2022, he was admitted to UC San Diego Hospital, where he stayed in the ICU and was treated for cryptococcal meningitis, a life-threatening brain and spinal infection.
“Rather than extending support to a critically ill employee,” the lawsuit says, Erickson hectored him with 27 text messages, including messages pressing him to contact HR and warning him he could be terminated if he didn’t file a 34-page leave of absence packet.
A corporate leave vendor also sent him 33 emails during his hospitalization, the complaint says.
Took Advantage of His Illness
Godiva fully recovered and returned to work “strong” and “healthy” in September 2022, and ready to resume teaching the four well-attended classes he’d led before his illness. The lawsuit says Erickson ignored his doctor’s medical clearance letter and allowed him to teach only one fitness class, citing “business decisions” as the reason.
Because Erickson reassigned Godiva’s prime-time fitness classes and double sessions to herself, the lawsuit alleges “this was her intentionally taking advantage of his life-threatening illness, stripping him of job duties while on protected leave pursuant to the Family Medical Leave Act and using his illness and disability” to benefit herself.
On Oct. 11, 2022, Godiva filed a formal complaint with Equinox, detailing the harassing emails and texts he had received in the ICU, and Erickson’s retaliatory scheduling practices following his return from medical leave.
Two weeks later, as part of the company’s investigation of his complaint, Godiva met with two HR representatives via videoconference. On Nov. 11, 2022, Equinox issued a memorandum stating its investigation was complete and that Godiva’s claims could not be substantiated.
In 2023, Godiva transferred to Equinox’s San Francisco facility, where he says the same retaliatory pattern persisted: a prime-time Thursday class was taken away from him after only three weeks, ostensibly due to declining attendance, which he disputes. The class was assigned to a newly hired, less-qualified white instructor, the lawsuit says.
In September 2025, Godiva emailed general manager Colette Hernandez to raise concerns that he was being denied opportunities to teach classes despite his extensive experience.
A Clash Over Teaching Styles Leads to Termination
On Jan. 27, 2026, Regional Group Fitness Manager Matthew Modleski emailed Godiva and directed him to convert his 9:30 a.m. Monday class from Pilates Fusion to the “True Barre” format, effective Feb. 2. True Barre combines ballet, Pilates and yoga using a stationary handrail, or “barre.”
Godiva says his “very New York style” of teaching barre and Pilates classes was popular with clients and appreciated by previous fitness managers.
“The way that I teach, it’s intense, but it’s very efficient and precise, and a lot of people love it. I am a large Black man, so just in general, me teaching a barre Pilates class is going to be different than a skinny white girl teaching it, just from the mechanics of like, who I am and how I teach.”
He claims Hernandez, who was relatively new, disliked his teaching style and, after observing and “policing” his classes for several weeks, forced him to change the format “to take away my agency as an instructor.”
On Jan. 29, Godiva told Modleski in writing that he had filed an HR complaint, arguing the directive was a retaliatory change to his employment conditions and an attempt to constructively discharge him.
On Feb. 1, Godiva notified his managers that he was too ill to teach the following day because of a medical condition aggravated by workplace stress. Equinox approved his leave, the complaint says.
He returned on Feb. 9 to teach his only assigned class. Godiva says he modified the standard True Barre curriculum by adding squats and core work, which he says are included in the official True Barre manual.
Four days later, HR told him a member had complained about his teaching style, saying she and another member walked out. Six hours later, Modleski emailed Godiva that he was terminated, effective immediately. Equinox said his deviation from the True Barre format was the reason for his firing.
Whistleblowing Allegations
The lawsuit says Godiva’s termination for that reason was pretextual, and that the real reason Equinox fired him was in retaliation for his “continued whistleblowing complaints about his unfair treatment (race, disability and pay).”
“To have this be the reason that a 16-year employee is terminated, without giving him a chance to defend himself or even see or check if this one complaint had merit,” Godiva says, “honestly, it’s about something else.”
Godiva’s lawsuit claims that Equinox violated federal and state civil rights laws by discriminating against him on the basis of race and disability, retaliating against and wrongfully terminating him for making whistleblower complaints about how he was treated. It also alleges the company violated California’s Equal Pay Act, based on race and gender diversity.
He seeks a jury trial to determine past and future compensatory damages, compensation for additional economic losses and costs, exemplary and punitive damages, and payment of his legal expenses.
Equinox did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Atlanta Black Star on the lawsuit. The company told KTVU that Godiva’s firing was justified and that it is determined to fight the suit.
“We terminated Mr. Godiva’s employment for cause and as such, this lawsuit is wholly without merit, and we will defend against it vigorously,” a company spokesperson said.
The company has 30 days to respond in court after being served with the complaint, which was filed on June 17.
Other Lawsuits Against Equinox
Godiva’s lawsuit is not the first alleging that Equinox discriminated against its trainers.
In May 2023, a Manhattan federal jury awarded Röbynn Europe, a former Equinox personal training manager, $11.25 million after she successfully sued the luxury gym franchise for race and gender discrimination, retaliation, and maintaining a hostile work environment.
Europe, a Black woman and professional bodybuilder, alleged that a white colleague made vulgar, racist and sexist comments about Black women and actively undermined her position. She further claimed that Equinox management failed to investigate her complaints and instead targeted her for termination.
Equinox argued that Europe was fired solely due to chronic attendance issues, noting that she was late 47 times in 10 months. Europe countered that non-Black employees with equal or worse attendance records were not disciplined or fired.
After Equinox announced it planned to challenge the verdict, in August 2023 Equinox and Europe filed a joint motion to vacate the judgment after reaching an undisclosed settlement.
And in November 2025, a Los Angeles County jury awarded Lajos “Lali” Hugyetz, a former Equinox personal trainer and world kickboxing champion, $32.2 million in a disability discrimination lawsuit.
Hugyetz, who had a serious hip arthritis condition that prevented him from continuous standing, claimed the company subjected him to shifts without required breaks and terminated him while he was on protected medical and family leave.
