Rapper T.I. has responded to the criticism he faced after claiming in an interview that he escorts his daughter on a trip to a gynecologist once a year to “check her hymen”.
T.I. – real name Clifford Joseph Harris Jr – faced a huge backlash earlier this month, when he said he and his 18-year-old daughter Deyjah “have yearly trips to the gynecologist”, to ensure she’s still a virgin (although many medical professionals have disproved the idea that an intact hymen means a woman is a virgin).
During an interview with Jada Pinkett Smith on her Facebook Watch show Red Table Talks, T.I. addressed the backlash for the first time, insisting his comments were “terribly misconstrued and misconceived”.
“From a place of truth I began to embellish and exaggerate,” he explained. “I think a lot of people took it extremely literal, because if you put any of my reputation, who I am as a father, who I’ve been, I honestly thought people knew me better than that.”
Asked whether he understood the sensitivity around his comments, T.I. responded: “I did not. I understand it now. However I think my intentions have been terribly misconstrued and misconceived.
“Let me go set this record straight. I never said I was in any exam room, that is an assumption, that is a falsity, I never said it was being done present day as an 18-year-old.
“I never said that her mother wasn’t present. Her mother was there. This false narrative has just been sensationalised.”
T.I.’s wife Tiny Harris – who co-starred with him in the reality show T.I. & Tiny: The Family Hustle – also clarified that Deyjah was 15 or 16 years old at the time of the appointments.
The Grammy-winning artist continued: “There was never any objection. She did have a problem with me talking about it, however, and I understand that and I am incredibly apologetic to her for that, not to any of these other strangers or any of these weirdos who toss lies around for fun.
“She knows my intentions, she knows who I am and she knows who I’ve always been and I think that allows a certain level of understanding. Outside, the noise is distracting, confusing, it’s hurtful and embarrassing.”
He added: “In the age or the time when our women, Black women, are the most unprotected, unattended, disregarded women on the planet, I am being criticised because I am willing to go above and beyond to protect mine.
“I’m talking about all of the little slimy, grimy, chubby-fingered little boys who want to just come in and defile and destroy the sanctity that I have… I don’t understand anything that is the most important thing to me in my life, I am going to deal with that with very extreme care, and I don’t understand how that is looked at as being so wrong.
“For there to be malice there must be ill-intent. If I’m going to the doctor with you for the sake of controlling you then OK, but if I’m going for the purpose of being a protective parent, and there is no such thing as over-protective, there is protected and unprotected.”
Since his initial statements, T.I.’s daughter Deyjah has remained silent on the matter, but she has been spotted liking a number of tweets slamming her father, including one post describing his behaviour as “disgusting, possessive and controlling”.
Many noticed that Deyjah also wasn’t following either of her parents on Instagram, although whether or not she was ever following them remains unclear.