Jennifer Hough, Nicki Minaj’s Husband’s Rape Victim, Gives First Televised Interview on ‘The Real’

Jennifer Hough, the woman who accused Nicki Minaj‘s husband Kenneth Petty of rape, opened up about the experience on The Real in her first televised interview. She and her lawyer, Tyrone Blackburn, discussed her defamation and witness intimidation lawsuit against the couple, as well as the initial experience in 1994.

“We believe that all women’s voices have the right to be heard, which is why we invited her to come here today,” Adrienne Houghton, co-host of The Real, began before asking Hough why she decided to open up on live TV.

“I’m tired of being afraid,” Hough said. “I feel like the actions that were taken in regards to this whole situation have put be in a different type of fear at my age now. It was wrong. I don’t want to be afraid anymore. The only way not to be afraid is to speak up.”

Earlier this month, Petty pleaded guilty for failing to register as a sex offender when he moved to the state of California. Back in March, Hough said that associates of Minaj and Petty pressured her to recant her allegations from 1994. On The Real today, Hough delved into those accusations.

“It was September 16 of ’94. It was a Friday morning,” Hough recalled. “I was on my way to school — high school. I seen him at a bus stop. I didn’t think anything of it, other than, ‘There goes Kenny across the street,'” Hough began to explain. “And before you know it, he was grabbing ahold of my jacket.”

Hough went on to explain the exact details of that day, saying she felt Petty press something — presumably a gun, she says — into her back. He then forced her into his home, pleading him to release her. Then, he forced her to take her clothes off and sexually assaulted her.

“I don’t know why it didn’t dawn on me to really fight,” Hough said, tearfully. “After he got off the top of me, he stood in the mirror and beat his chest. He said, ‘I’m the man, I’m the man.’ I’m asking him, ‘Please let me go, I won’t tell nobody.’ He just was into the mirror, into himself, and he went to light a cigarette.”

Looking for an escape method, Hough recalls trying to light toilet paper on fire with the matches Petty used for his cigarette, which failed. Then, she tried to distract him by spraying him with contact lens solution, but she couldn’t get out.

When Minaj’s fans began commenting on her Instagram posts about the rape accusations made against her husband, she denied the situation. “he was 15, she was 16… in a relationship,” Minaj wrote.

“We were never in a relationship. Ever,” Hough clarified on The Real. “We never had no type of romantic anything. We never talked on the phone, we never hung out together. I just knew him from the neighborhood.”

After recounting her experience, the hosts of The Real asked about getting justice for what Petty had done and the way Minaj had influenced the situation.

“I don’t think I thought about justice, per se, because I was still blaming myself,” Hough responded. “I thought it was something that I did or didn’t do. So I don’t think I thought about if I got justice. I just knew he did what he did and he went to jail. I had to leave my family, I had to leave my home, and I had to move away.”

The hosts went further, asking how the whole situation had affected Hough emotionally, over the years: “So many ways,” Hough said. “Hiding within myself. Living and surviving through insecurities. Using them to protect myself. Thinking that if I don’t look a certain way, I won’t attract a certain type of attention. I’ve been like that my whole life.”

And after the news came out that Minaj and Petty were married in 2019, Hough said that only made her more terrified: “I was so afraid of being found out,” Hough said. “I was so afraid of being known as the person he violated, and I didn’t want that. You know, it’s Nicki Minaj. I didn’t want that to reflect on my children.”

As for the comments from Minaj, Hough says what’s most upsetting is that they’re being made from another woman.

“It was like reliving it again. It was a lie. It wasn’t true,” Hough concluded. “I just felt, woman to woman, that was wrong of her.”

The Real airs weekdays on Fox at 12/11c.

If you or someone you know needs to reach out about sexual abuse, RAINN is available 24/7 at 800-656-HOPE (4673), or online at RAINN.org.

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