Who Is Jussie Smollett's Ex-Boyfriend And Why Is He Threatening To Release Jussie's Sex Tape?
Smollett's ex is demanding money to prevent the leak of a sex tape.
Getty Jussie Smollett is back in hot water. The former Empire actor has been trying to stay out of the spotlight ever since his 2019 scandal where he was accused of faking a hate crime against himself. He claimed to be attacked outside his Chicago apartment building by two men who shouted racists and homophobic epithets and tied a rope around his neck. Later, it was revealed that he had paid the two men to set up the attack — though Smollet still denies the attack was orchestrated by him.
Now, an unnamed man who claims to have dated Smollett is saying that the actor owes him money. He reached out to a gossip site to issue an ultimatum; if the actor doesn't pay up, the source will release a sex tape.
Who is Jussie Smollett's ex-boyfriend and why is threatening to release Smollet's sex tape?
Read on for all the details.
Who is this ex-boyfriend?
According to a gossip site, a man who doesn't wish to be named reached out to say that he has a three-minute tape of Smollett performing oral sex on him. He also says that Smollett owes him money and he wants to be paid back or else he'll release the sex tape. The anonymous man texted "He owe me money I was fw him for about 6 months now we would meet at the Mardi Grass hotel in L.A," evidently explaining the logistics of their affair.
Ther is no identifying information about the secretive texter but the gossip site says he followed up with an snippet of tape he claims is Smollett on film.
Is this Smollett's only love interest?
The texting man said that he isn't the only person who has been getting busy with Smollett. In the text thread he said "He's also fw a DL rapper now." We assume by DL he means "on the downlow", a term used by men who present themselves as straight but have secretive homosexual encounters. Despite dropping this tantalizing tidbit, the text sender didn't share any details about who the rapper might be.
Smollett in 2019.
What does Smollett have to say about this?
Smollet's team reached out to the gossip site to say that he was not the person in the alleged sex tape but he also apparently paid the man making the accusations. The website posted an update with screenshots of a bank transaction showing that Smollett sent his unnamed lover $10,000.
Smollett has a history of questionable relationships.
In 2019, sources claimed that not only did he know the men he paid to attack him, he had been sexually intimate with at least one of them. "They used to party together and he had a sexual relationship with [Abel Osundairo]," an insider said. "They went to this affluent Chicago bathhouse multiple times and they had to show ID. It’s known as a bathhouse where a lot of affluent black gay men hang out. There should be a record [of their visits].”
Smollett is busy fighting new charges.
When he's not paying off extortionists — or paying back his ex, depending on how you look at it — the former actor is back in court. In February he was hit with six additional charges related to the fake hate crime from a year ago. The new charges include six counts of disorderly conduct related to making four separate false reports to Chicago Police Department officers, claiming he was the victim of a hate crime while "knowing he was not the victim of a crime," according to special prosecutor Dan Webb. Smollett pleaded not guilty to all the charges.
Will the alleged Jussie Smollet sex tape ever be leaked?
We can't say for sure what the man holding the alleged sex tape will do with it in the long term. For the moment, he appears to be appeased by getting $10,000 from the actor.
Rebekah Kuschmider has been writing about celebrities, pop culture, entertainment, and politics since 2010. She is the creator of the blog FeminXer and she is a cohost of the weekly podcast The More Perfect Union.