Red Table Talk/Facebook WatchT.I. has broken his silence following his claims he takes his daughter, Deyjah Harris, to the gynaecologist every year to make sure her hymen is still intact.
The 39-year-old rapper made the horrifying revelation he ‘checks’ 18-year-old Deyjah’s virginity earlier this month, and said he has stayed silent on the matter since out of respect for his daughter.
However, he and his wife Tiny Harris, 44, have now spoken publicly for the first time since his admission, with T.I. defending his actions and saying his words were simply ‘misconstrued’.
You can watch part of the interview below:
Appearing on a new episode of Red Table Talk on Facebook Watch, T.I. argued he was just protecting his daughter by taking her to the gynaecologist, saying he didn’t want ‘slimy, grimy, chubby-fingered little boys’ to ‘defile and destroy’ his daughter.
Despite this, he did say he ‘embellished and exaggerated’ his claims while appearing on the Ladies Like Us podcast, blaming the public for misunderstanding him and taking his claims ‘extremely literal’ [sic].
The rapper told hosts Jada Pinkett Smith and Adrienne Banfield-Norris:
My intentions, I think, have been terribly misconstrued. All of this false narrative has just been sensationalised.
T.I. went on to say he wanted to ‘set this record straight’, adding he was never present in the exam room – something he said was ‘assumed’ by the public – and these exams were not being done in the present day. Tiny interjected Deyjah was 15 or 16 at the time.
Red Table Talk/Facebook WatchWhen the rapper attempted to say society didn’t want him to be involved in his daughter’s life, saying he could just be perceived as a sperm donor who has ‘no say-so in how things are handled’, Jada disputed him, telling him nobody had a problem with him being close to his daughter.
The problem, she said, is ‘the hymen part’ – as people who listened to the interview believed him to be controlling his daughter’s virginity. T.I. said he ‘didn’t understand’ how that was perceived as wrong though, stating: ‘Anything that is the most important thing to me in my life, I am going to deal with that with very extreme care.’
Jada then tried to explain his thinking is indicative of a patriarchal society, which – when T.I. said he didn’t know what it meant – she defined as dictated by the thoughts of men, and which is often oppressive to women and the feminine journey.
The rapper then incredulously asked:
Have females actually tried to explain [this] to men?
Red Table Talk/Facebook WatchPatiently, Jada pointed out that yes, they have, referencing feminism – to which T.I. somehow again managed to miss the point entirely, defining feminism as ‘women wanting men to stop silencing them so they can silence men’.
After approximately 20 minutes of going round in circles, T.I. ended the discussion by saying: ‘I understand that I don’t understand.’ Jada then conceded it had all been a misunderstanding.
It’s difficult to know if T.I. has learnt anything from this, seeing as the only thing he apologised for throughout the interview was his sharing of Deyjah’s extremely private and intimate medical information publicly.
Even then, he used it as a way to call out the ‘weirdos’ who had ‘misconstrued’ his words, something which took away from the apology slightly.
PA ImagesIt’s not known whether the father and daughter have reconciled since his comments, although Deyjah recently unfollowed T.I. on all forms of social media after liking a series of tweets branding him ‘disgusting’, ‘possessive’ and ‘controlling’.
Hopefully T.I. will recognise how his words and actions could have hurt his daughter, and will apologise properly in person to her.
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A Broadcast Journalism Masters graduate who went on to achieve an NCTJ level 3 Diploma in Journalism, Lucy has done stints at ITV, BBC Inside Out and Key 103. While working as a journalist for UNILAD, Lucy has reported on breaking news stories while also writing features about mental health, cervical screening awareness, and Little Mix (who she is unapologetically obsessed with).