Comedian Bobby Lee is suing Wondery for breach of contract after the audio company allegedly canceled a multiyear ad sales and distribution deal for his podcast, TigerBelly, which he co-hosts with Khalyla Kuhn.

The complaint, filed in Los Angeles on Thursday on behalf of Lee’s TigerBelly company, alleges that Wondery was “under pressure to cut expenses and roll back its financial commitments” in anticipation of a podcast market slowdown in 2023, leading the company to terminate its 39-month deal with the TigerBelly podcast in early April.

The deal, which TigerBelly and Wondery reached in December 2022, was in exchange for “multimillion-dollar financial guarantees that reflected the widespread success and popularity of [the podcast],” the complaint said.

In the termination notice sent to TigerBelly, Wondery also allegedly cited a “morals clause” and pointed to a 2013 story that Lee told — and later said was made up for shock value — about paying for “a young-looking sex...