After rapper T.I. was swept up in controversy following his comments about his 18-year-old daughter Deyjah’s virginity, his wife, Tameka “Tiny” Harris is weighing in. On Tuesday, the 44-year-old took to Instagram to share a photo of herself and her husband, immediately sparking discussions on T.I.’s controversial comments.
“Mi amor por siempre…” Harris captioned the photo.
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When one fan asked is Deyjah is “okay,” writing that “we care,” Harris responded with a series of rolling eye emojis.
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Given the intensity of the backlash to T.I.’s comments, made last week in a since-removed episode of the Ladies Like Us podcast, Harris’ response did not sit well with her followers, many of whom criticized her for undermining the seriousness of the discussion taking palace.
“Yeah hat’s such a great response when her father literally humiliated her in front of the world and not only that let it slip the vile act you allowed him to have done,” one wrote. “Seems like no one stood up for that girl and her RIGHTS to her OWN body. But go ahead and roll your eyes though like you don’t look like a huge joke. Congratulations parent of the year.”
“Don’t don’t even do that. What kind of parents are you? Honestly not the good type,” another commented. “U hurt your own child mentally she’s just staring college BE ASHAMED”
“For you, as a woman, to respond like this….. is so disappointing,” added a third.
“Seriously!! As a woman…mother and wife it is your responsibility to check your husband & protect your kids!” a fourth wrote. “This is an invasion of YOUR daughter’s privacy!! Stand up for her mom!”
Speaking with podcast hosts Nazanin Mandi and Nadia Moham, the Grammy winner revealed that he makes “yearly trips to the gynecologist” with his daughter “to check her hymen” and recounted their first trip.
“So then [the doctor says], ‘I just want you to know there are other ways besides sex that the hymen can be broken,” he said in part. “Like bike riding, athletics, horseback riding and just other forms of athletic physical activity. So I said, ‘Look doc, she don’t ride no horses, she don’t ride no bikes, she don’t play no sports. Just check the hymen, please. And give me back my results expeditiously.’”
The backlash that the comments sparked were so fierce that the podcast’s hosts not only issued an apology, but removed the episode altogether.
On Wednesday, it was discovered that Deyjah, who had liked several tweets calling her father’s actions “controlling” and “possessive,” had unfollowed her father as well as Harris, though it is unclear if she did that before or after the comments were made.
T.I. has not yet publicly addressed the controversy.