On the June 22 episode of T.I. & Tiny: Friends & Family Hustle, T.I. finally apologized to his daughter, Deyjah Harris, 19, for telling the world about how he accompanied her to the gynecologist to “check her hymen” and make sure she was still a virgin. Tip made the comments during a podcast interview in the fall of 2019, and the news broke while the Harris family was on vacation in Mexico. Deyjah ignored her dad for quite some time after the trip, and he eventually had a long conversation with Deyjah’s mom, Ranniqua, which helped him realize why his interview about Deyjah’s private life was wrong.
“I realize how inappropriate the conversation about Deyjah on the podcast may have been and I hold myself accountable and take full responsibility,” Tip said on Friends & Family Hustle. “I was wrong. I am willing to accept full accountability, one hundred percent, for everything I may have said that shouldn’t have been said. I apologize to Deyjah. You know I love you. You know I’ve always gone above and beyond to do everything and anything possible to make you happy and keep you protected. However, I must now acknowledge the fact that you’ve now become a young lady. I understand that. Some lessons are harder than others, but the important thing is — make sure you get the lesson.”
Throughout the episode, Tip and Deyjah both insisted in their separate confessionals that they didn’t feel like they should be the one to reach out to the other first. However, after a conversation with his nieces, T.I. realized that it was important for him to touch base with his daughter. At that point, Deyjah still wasn’t ready to talk, and screened the rapper’s calls.
Eventually, Deyjah agreed to let Ranniqua speak on her behalf during an interview on Tip’s podcast. During the interview, T.I. tried to explain that his comments were meant as a joke, but Ranniqua was there to explain why that still wasn’t appropriate. She also gave T.I. advice on how to deal with sensitive situations like this in the future.
“Ask your daughter, and whether she tells you yes or no — believe her!” Ranniqua insisted. “At the end of the day, whether or not her hymen is intact isn’t telling of whether or not she had sex. So if you tell the doctor to check her hymen, and she told you she hasn’t done anything, but her hymen is broken, and she’s telling the truth, now you’re coming down on her and telling her she’s lying.” Finally, it clicked for T.I., and led him to issue his apology. However, viewers did not get to see an actual conversation between the father and daughter.