TI defends himself over daughter's annual virginity test

After public outcry over his sentiments on checking his daughter’s Deyjah Harris’ virginity, rapper T.I has now said in his defence, that his statements were an exaggeration, and that they were misconstrued.

On a previous interview he has said in reply to sex education for his children that  he ‘not only had the conversation, but had ‘yearly trips to the gynaecologist to check her hymen’.

He added: “Yes, I go with her … I will say, as of her 18th birthday, her hymen is still intact. So then they come and say, ‘Well, I just want you to know that there are other ways besides sex that the hymen can be broken like bike riding, athletics, horseback riding and just other forms of athletic physical activity’. So I say, ‘Look, Doc, she don’t ride no horses, she don’t ride no bike, she don’t play no sports. Just check the hymen, please, and give me back my results expeditiously.’”

His statement sent the public into a frenzy, with most decrying his actions.

Speaking at the Jada Pinkett’s Red Table Talk alongside his wife Tiny Harris, the rapper said the uproar had stemmed from a conversation he had had ‘in a joking manner’

“I think all of this comes from a conversation I was having in a very joking manner when asked how I deal with parenting in this day and age.”

“From a place of truth, I began to embellish and exaggerate and 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,” he continued.

He went on to clarify that he was never in the room during those gynecologist visits where his daughter had her hymen checked, “I never said I was in any exam room, that was an assumption.That is a falsity.

Furthermore, his wife stated that he never specifically made appointments to have his daughter’s hymen checked, rather they happened during routine appointments.“He didn’t make the doctor’s appointment. There was already an appointment,” she stated.

The two also maintained that the last time they had their daughter checked, she must have been 15 or 16, and not 18 as the rapper implied, and that his wife was present during those visits – not just the rapper as had been earlier perceived.