Back in November of 2018, Dwight Howard was hit with allegations of abuse by an alleged former lover by the name of Masin Elije. Elije identifies as a gay man and said Howard was abusive and cheated on his with other gay men and trans men. Howard has said numerous times in legal documents that he doesn't even know who Elije is and wants him to stop making slanderous statements. Elije is suing Howard, although Howard has hit back with a $10 million countersuit.
On Wednesday, Howard will appear on an episode of FS1's Fair Game with Kristine Leahy and in a new clip which is circulating around the internet, Howard addresses the allegations against him.
"I'm not gay," Howard said. "It’s a lot of people who are and they have to hide, and there’s people who have mental issues and they have to hide. There’s people who have different problems in life and they have to hide. They have to put on the mask every day, and it’s like, I don’t wanna wear no mask, I just wanna be."
The NBA star also talked about the hate he received from the internet and how it all kind of shocked him. To this day, he doesn't understand why Elije would make up a story about him.
"It ended up being a situation that was--it went viral. People were talking about it, and it upset me because I didn’t even know who the person was," Howard explained. "Why would somebody who I never met, never had any contact with, make up a whole story about me. I saw all the hate, the pure hate, from people that I’ve never met before, just pile up everywhere I went."
Howard also explained how this whole situation has liberated him and that moving forward, he just wants to focus on his NBA career.
[Via]