Malik Yoba Denies Outing “Empire” Co-Star Jussie Smollett
Empire star Jussie Smollett aka “Jamal Lyon” has made it a point not to speak about his real-life sexuality in interviews, but recent comments on the topic made by his co-star Mailk Yoba last week had the internet on fire.
As we reported, Malik did an interview with BlackFilm and was quoted as confirming that Jussie is indeed gay in real life, but he now says he was misquoted. Malik issued this statement to USA Today via his publicist once the story broke:
“I was misquoted in the article. My reference to Jussie was only about his character and storyline on Empire.”
Here’s the original interview quote in question….
via Black Film
“I think that our show represents a huge opportunity to stay in the culture beyond entertainment value and there’s an intrinsic nature of you have the gay factor, right? So, obviously, Lee (Daniels, co-creator) is gay. That was an important storyline for him. I think it’s important for people to see themselves. Even within the Black community. But if you aren’t really, really taking it off of screen and making it live in the community in a significant way … like I know Jussie, he is gay, and he’s very committed to issues around the LGBT community. He and I have a very close relationship.”
…and here’s Jussie speaking on the topic of his sexuality in a recent sit-down with Sway (starts at about the 8 minute mark):
Hmmmmm. So what’s your take on all this, Bossip fam?