T.I. is no stranger to landing himself in hot water for his controversial opinions. But none were as disturbing as when he revealed on the Ladies Like Us podcast back in November 2019 that he went to his daughter Deyjah’s annual gynecology appointments to ensure she was still a virgin. The episode was deleted and T.I. says he’s since apologized to his daughter. But we never quite saw how this all affected Deyjah until now.
During a recent episode of T.I. & Tiny: Friends and Family Hustle, 18-year-old Deyjah is seen talking to her cousins about the incident during a family vacation. She’s seen fighting back tears as she talks about how awkward the relationship with her dad is now.
“I’m scrolling on Twitter, and I see that I’ve been tagged in a post,” Deyjah said while explaining how she found out about the interview. “The only word that I saw was ‘gynecologist’ and I didn’t even need to read the whole title ’cause I just knew. My heart sank — very shocked, hurt, angry, embarrassed.”
“I’m trying to put it in the back of my mind,” she adds, “so I’m not really thinking about it. I know it’s not healthy. But I’ve been doing that since I was a child.” When one of her cousins suggests that she have an honest conversation with her dad about how she feels, Deyjah seems unenthused. “I’m not going to be able to get through to him and connect, for real, for real, like I need to,” she says. “He always plays victim, honestly. I just don’t really care to be around him right now.”
Watch the heartbreaking clip below.
T.I. visited the Red Table Talk in November amid the controversy and revealed that his comments about Deyjah’s virginity were “sensationalized.”
“All of this surrounds a conversation that I was having in a very joking manner when asked how do I deal with parenting in this day and age,” he told host Jada Pinkett Smith. “So, I just began to, from a place of truth, I began to embellish and exaggerate, and I think that a lot of people took it extremely literal.”
Here’s to hoping that T.I. has learned from his mistake and repaired his relationship with Deyjah.