During Monday's "Red Table Talk" interview, rapper and actor T.I. sought to "clear up any misconceptions" about his controversial podcast interview in which he said he joins his teenage daughter at the gynecologist to "check her hymen."
»MORE: Planned Parenthood responds to T.I.'s revelation about going to the gynecologist with his daughter
His comments earlier this month incited an impassioned debate about whether his views were appropriate dad fodder or dripping in misogyny. His comments and the following uproar over them, which evoked reactions from Gloria Steinem and Planned Parenthood, have been dubbed “Hymen-gate.” In the interview with Jada Pinkett Smith and her mother Adrienne Banfield-Jones, T.I., whose real name is Clifford Harris, said the interview was taken too seriously, noting his answers during the “Ladies Like Us” podcast were said in a “joking manner.”
“I just began to — from a place of truth — I began to embellish and exaggerate, and I think a lot of people took it extremely literal,” he told Pinkett Smith and Banfield-Jones.
His wife Tameka “Tiny” Harris joined him during Monday’s interview and helped him explain that he did not go into the exam room with his now 18-year-old daughter Deyjah, and he only visited the doctor’s office with her when she was about “15 or 16” accompanied by her mom.
Credit: Dimitrios Kambouris
Credit: Dimitrios Kambouris
T.I. said he regrets the backlash and how it’s affected his daughter, who reportedly closed down all of her social media accounts after the interview caught wind.
“I am incredibly apologetic to her for that — to her — to you, sweet baby Deyjah,” T.I. said while pointing his comments toward the camera during the Facebook Watch broadcast. “Not to any of these other strangers, any of these weirdos who just toss lies around for fun.”
The rapper and activist later said he found issue with the lambasting only because his efforts were based in him being “willing to go above and beyond to protect mine.” Pinkett Smith responded to her friend by saying she knew his intentions, but the “hymen” comments likely hurt his efforts.
“A woman’s journey in regards to her sexuality has to be guided mostly, I think, by mothers,” Pinkett Smith said in the conversation.
As they did post the podcast interview, several Twitter users submitted their perspectives on T.I.’s attempts to clear his name via the interview, which had been viewed more than 1.1 million times a few hours after it was posted Monday.
People particularly found issue with the rapper’s “Red Table Talk” comments about how his household would be “changed” if his daughter got pregnant but not if his sons were expecting a child.
The “Whatever You Like” lyricist also caused many to pause with his viewpoints on feminism and patriarchy.
Watch the entire Red Table Talk interview below:
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