TD Jakes Discusses Sexual Allegations Against Him
Jakes also spoke to the sexual abuse allegations that have been brought against him by Pennsylvania pastor and convicted sex offender Duane Youngblood the day after Jakes suffered his heart attack.
Youngblood claims that Jakes tried to groom and assault him almost 40 years ago. Jakes denies the allegations and filed a defamation suit against his accuser saying that “Youngblood’s intentional and malicious lies have taken a substantial emotional and physical toll on [Jakes].”
Melvin asked Jakes, “How do you respond to those allegations?”
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“You know, it wasn’t just then. It’s been going on all year from different people in different places,” Jakes responded. “We’re living in a time of misinformation and disinformation that’s hard to live with, and I came to a few conclusions.”
He said, “Some people don’t see you as an individual. They see you as an opportunity. And we’re living in a time right now of people being misaligned and seldom challenged. I filed the suit because if you don’t ever speak back, it just continues to go on and on and on. And I decided enough is enough.”
Melvin then asked, “Do you expect there will be more accusers coming forward?”
While vehemently denying Youngblood’s allegations, Jakes answered:
I don’t know where we are right now, from the looks of last year and how many Black celebrities and celebrities in general have had to endure this kind of stuff. I don’t know where we are right now. I think that there is a hopelessness of desperateness. Desperate people do desperate things. [Youngblood’s attorneys] have filed a motion to have it dismissed. So far it’s been denied. We filed 600 pages of information. I don’t know what’s next. I didn’t see this coming. I haven’t seen this person for 40 years, and this particular individual has been arrested as a child predator twice and convicted.
Jakes also spoke about his motion for a subpoena against Google, YouTube’s parent company, over AI-generated videos that falsely linked him to hip-hop mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs.
“Killing people’s character has become a business, and your own network did their own research and proved that the AI-generated images and pictures that went everywhere were AI-generated—that it was false,” said Jakes.
RELATED: TD Jakes Aims To Combat AI-Generated Misinformation on YouTube
