Actor Malik Yoba flew into a rage during an on-camera interview with The Root’s senior reporter Terrell Jermaine Starr, stormed off the set, and demanded the cameramen hand over their footage.
Yoba lost his temper when Starr pressed him about recent allegations that he solicited sex from underage transgender sex workers and claimed that Starr had gone back on an agreement they’d made about the interview.
“You and I sat for four hours the other day and we decided how we were going to approach this,” the “New York Undercover” star said. “It’s a setup. I don’t like this.”
Starr’s questioning was in response to trans activist Mariah Lopez Ebony, who accused Yoba of paying her and other sex workers in the ’90s. Lopez made the allegations after Yoba came out as “trans-attracted” when promoting the National Trans Visibility March on DC.
Yoba responded to Lopez’s claims during the Root interview, saying, “I don’t know the woman … I have no idea who she is.”
Starr then asked about criticism that he fetishizes the trans community. He replied, “I don’t appreciate this s - - t at all … We sat for four f–king hours and you’re going to stay on some allegations. F–k you! This [is] my f–king life!”
A rep for Yoba told The Root he “categorically denies all allegations.”