Celebrities call out TI's 'abhorrent' yearly virginity testing for his daughter

Rapper said during interview: 'I will say as of her 18th birthday, her hymen is still intact'

Celebrities are publicly criticising TI after the rapper said that he takes his teenage daughter for yearly gynaecological visits to check her “hymen is still intact”.

The father-of-six made the controversial comments regarding his 18-year-old daughter Deyjah Harris’ sex life during an interview with Nazanin Mandi and Nadia Moham on the Ladies Like Us podcast.

In addition to sparking widespread backlash on social media, where the 39-year-old has been accused of being “coercive” and “creepy”, TI is also facing criticism from celebrities including Chrissy Teigen and Padma Lakshmi.

Following his comments, Chrissy Teigen wrote on Twitter that she “def did not think we would be talking about hymens today. Or TI.”

The model then followed up with a second tweet, where she added: “Alright it's time to mute ‘hymen.’”

Sharon Osbourne and Eve addressed the rapper’s comments on the show The Talk, where Osbourne said: “Firstly, he should never ever be talking about his daughter’s sex life, ever. On a podcast? I think it’s freaky he would go to the gynaecologist with his daughter and talk about it.”

Osbourne continued: “Don’t talk about your kids’ sex life, about what’s going on in their body, it is sacred to them. It’s not your life.

“Because you’re the daddy doesn’t give you other rights, it’s not your life, let your daughter lead her own life. And keep her privacy.”

Eve agreed, adding that the rapper’s comments were “very shocking” and that they point to “daddy issues”.

“Those appointments - while I think it is okay for a dad to have those conversations with your daughter about sexual situations - her time with her doctor, that’s her private time,” the singer said. “You’re infringing on her freedom, her body. He doesn’t own her and that’s where I come in with that situation.”

Top Chef host Padma Lakshmi shared her thoughts on TI’s parenting on Twitter, where she called out the “double standard of the patriarchy”.

“The double standard of the patriarchy is truly insane,” she wrote. “Young women are fully capable of making their own informed decisions about their bodies and their sexuality.”

The Handmaid’s Tale actress Madeline Brewer also responded to the controversy, calling the rapper’s behaviour “abhorrent”.

“This makes me feel physically ill,” she wrote. “It’s abhorrent. This isn’t behaviour to laugh at or joke about. The level of toxicity and malice and control he’s exerting on his own daughter’s life and bodily autonomy and privacy. I’m sick.”

In tweets which have since been deleted, rapper Iggy Azalea, who has collaborated with TI before, reportedly said: “Unfortunately, he is dead serious,” adding: “Really I wish the women who interviewed him would have said something to him.

“He has serious control issues with women in all aspects of his life and needs therapy.”

Azalea wasn't the only one who called out the responses from the podcast hosts, Mandi and Moham.

During the interview, the hosts laughed as the rapper described the virginity testing he requires of his daughter - a reaction that many believed was inappropriate.

“It's interesting that TI got zero pushback from the female hosts of that podcast,” one person wrote on Twitter. “The internalised misogyny is strong.”

Mandi and Moham have since apologised for their reactions, explaining that their laughter was a “knee-jerk reaction to the uncomfortable topic”. They have also removed the episode.

“To everyone confused, angry and hurt by the recent episode of Ladies Like Us, we want to start off by saying that we sincerely apologise for our knee-jerk reaction to the uncomfortable topic,” they wrote in a statement shared to social media. “We were completely caught off-guard/shocked and looking back, we should have reacted much differently in the moment.”

Explaining that their reactions were not “a reflection of our personal views on the topic,” the hosts added: “We support and love women and feel that their bodies are theirs to do as they wish.

“We are not perfect, take full accountability of our lack of action and are continuously learning along the way,” they concluded. “We know an apology doesn’t make this go away but we welcome the discussion.”

TI’s comments also prompted responses from sexual health charities including Planned Parenthood, which addressed the rapper’s claims in a lengthy Twitter thread, where the organisation explained that virginity is a “made-up social construct” and “you can’t tell if someone’s had sex by the way their hymen looks or feels”.

As of now, TI has not addressed the backlash.