US rapper T.I. walks back comment about having his daughter’s hymen checked; says she was mortified but that he ‘didn’t get it’
- Speaking on Jada Pinkett Smith’s Facebook series ‘Red Table Talk’, he said he was exaggerating and had no idea how sensitive people would be about it
- Calling it ‘Hymen-gate’, he said he had been acting in ‘a very joking manner’
Rapper T.I., with an OK from his daughter Deyjah Harris, has clarified his recent statements regarding policing her hymen and her virginity.
“Hymen-gate,” as he called it on Jada Pinkett Smith’s Facebook series Red Table Talk in a segment posted on Monday, was born of a conversation he was having in “a very joking manner” about how he handles parenting in this day and age.
“From a place of truth, I began to embellish and exaggerate and I think that a lot of people kind of took it extremely literal,” T.I. said of his comments on a recent episode of the “Ladies Like Us” podcast. “I honestly thought people knew me better than that,” he added.
Asked on the “Ladies Like Us” podcast earlier this month about sex education for his children, he said: “Not only have we had the conversation, we have yearly trips to the gynaecologist to check her hymen. Yes, I go with her … I will say, as of her 18th birthday, her hymen is still intact.” The comments have since been edited out of the podcast.
T.I., whose real name is Clifford Harris Jnr, said he had no idea how sensitive people would be to a blunt discussion of the subject. “No, I did not,” he said, with an amazed look on his face. “I understand it now. Yes, I do, absolutely.”
