*Malik Yoba stormed out of a on-camera interview with The Root after being confronted with allegations he solicited sex from underage trans girls way back in the day.
As we reported earlier, Yoba shocked fans when he confessed to being trans-attracted. Soon after the revelation, a trans woman, Mariah Lopez Ebony, came forward claiming he paid her for sex when she was 13 and 16-years-old. When Yoba and reporter Terrell Jermaine Starr of The Root sat down for an on-camera interview, the “Empire” star denied the allegations.
“I don’t know her. I have no idea who she is,” he said (around 7:47 in the clip above ). “I am familiar with that pain, I’m familiar with that trauma. I’m familiar with people who are crying out for help. I’m familiar with the lack of regard for this population, which is, again, my point. So, when I heard it, for me, to hear something so heinous, right, number one, and to see someone post something with no proof of anything and to see the world embrace it, or a portion of the world embrace it, that toxicity, speaks exactly to the reason I do the work that I do.”
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Yoba insists he understands the plight of trans women because he once had to “dress up” as a transwoman in an episode of “New York Undercover.”
“That’s fiction, though. That’s not real life,” Starr said.
“Yeah, but you’re missing my point. You’re making your point. The point that I’m making is that you asked me what does it feel like to stand up in the face of this. And I’m telling you that if I am this and someone is calling me this, that is akin to a transgender woman being called a man.”
Starr then noted the accusations that Yoba is being opportunistic by discussing his sexual attraction rather than trans issues. That’s when the conversation goes left and Malik becomes visibly upset, rips off his mic and storms off the set — calling the whole interview a “setup.”
“We sat for four f*cking hours and you gonna stay on some f*cking allegations? Fuck you,” he shouted after walking off set. “The f*ck is wrong with you? This my f*cking life.”
Yoba is then heard telling The Root team to hand over the SD card for the interview, but they refuse.
When The Root reached out to his camp for comment after the incident, they said: “Mr. Yoba categorically denies all allegations and will not respond, beyond this comment, to requests for comment.”
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