TI defends himself after uproar over daughter's virginity testing: 'I never said I was in the exam room'
Rapper says he 'embellished and exaggerated' when he said his daughter
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Your support makes all the difference.TI has defended himself after facing backlash for saying he took his 18-year-old daughter to the gynaecologist every year for virginity testing.
The rapper addressed the controversy in an episode of Jada Pinkett Smith’s web talk show Red Table Talk released on Monday.
TI had previously told the Ladies Like Us podcast of his daughter Deyjah Harris: “We have yearly trips to the gynaecologist to check her hymen,” adding: “As of her 18th birthday, her hymen is still intact.”
In his latest interview, TI said he was having this conversation “in a very joking manner” and that “from a place of truth, [he] began to embellish and exaggerate”.
“My intentions, I think, have been terribly misconstrued and misconceived,” he added.
“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 that it was being done present-day, as an 18-year-old.”
His wife Tiny Harris interjected: “She was 15 and 16 years old at the time.”
TI continued: “And I never said her mother wasn’t present. Her mom was present every time.”
Tiny added: “He didn’t make the doctor’s appointment. There was already an appointment.”
TI said that both his daughter and her mother welcomed his presence at the time.
He did say that Deyjah had an issue with him discussing the topic publicly, adding that he was “incredibly apologetic” to the 18-year-old for that reason.
TI’s comments were met with shock from celebrities who found his behaviour “abhorrent” and denounced it as patriarchal.
Planned Parenthood responded to his remarks in a Twitter thread beginning with the sentence: "Idk who needs to hear this but virginity is a made-up social construct, and it has absolutely nothing to do with your hymen.”
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