Jonathan Cheban suffered two and a half years of "hell'" after a BBQ sauce bottle "exploded" and cut him "like a fish".
Kim Kardashian's longtime friend - who legally changed his name to Foodgod in 2019 - has filed a $20 million lawsuit against the manufacturer of San-J’s Korean barbeque sauce over claims a glass bottle smashed open and left him with a deep cut on his hand and he's now revealed he's been through a tough time since sustaining the injury.
Cheban, 49, told TMZ.com: "You know it's been two and a half years since I had therapy on my hand and people think that it just happened but it's been two and a half years of hell with my hand and my nerves and everything.
"The whole point is ... this company ... had these bottles in every single supermarket on the shelves and it's a brand new bottle that exploded. Still with the plastic on. I didn't even get to open it. It exploded as I touched it out of the refrigerator ... and sliced me like a fish. If it was like a quarter of an inch ... lower it would have killed me on my artery."
Cheban’s lawsuit has been filed against the manufacturer of both the bottle and the sauce as well as the distributor and the store in Florida where he bought it.
In the suit he claims to suffering ongoing nerve damage and pain and he lost the ability to use his hand to create social media posts and adverts which are part of his job.
He has since insisted the legal action is about safety - not money - adding to TMZ: "It's not about being rich or not ... people need to worry about bottles exploding that aren't even opened ... This can't happen to anyone else. It's a horrible thing."