Key Takeaways
- Chingy denied ever having a romantic relationship with transgender reality star Sidney Starr, telling Jason Lee, "There was no dirt on me and you ain’t never gonna find none."
- He said the rumor grew from a fan photo taken at a Chicago concert around 2007, which Starr later used to support a fabricated relationship claim before apologizing.
- Chingy said the controversy cost him opportunities and briefly made him hesitant to take photos with LGBTQ+ fans.
Chingy has revisited past allegations of him being romantically involved with transgender reality television personality Sidney Starr.
On the Wednesday (September 2) episode of BET’s The Jason Lee Show, the St. Louis rapper recalled performing at the AVN Awards in 2005, after which a photograph circulated of him being touched onstage by a trans woman, and in turn rumors followed about his sexual orientation.
“I don't let nothing get me out of character, especially if it ain't the truth," Chingy said. "And so when they did, I was just like, I'm past that."
The allegations surrounding Chingy being queer, which the "Right Thurr" rapper said "came and went," resurfaced when he was seen in a photograph with Starr in 2010. The media personality claimed that she was in a relationship with the former DTP signee, although she would later apologize for fabricating the rumors.
Chingy recounted that the picture was taken roughly around 2007 at a Chicago concert and that Starr asked to be photographed with him. The image would resurface years later, at which point Chingy was notified about it by a friend via text. He'd eventually see a headline about the relationship allegation on MediaTakeOut.
"I'm just like, 'Damn, Chingy's secret life?' What's so secret about my life?'" Chingy told Lee. "I think a lot of people just wanted that to be true, man. There was no dirt on me and you ain’t never gonna find none."
"But I think people wanted [it] to be true. I was a successful, well-groomed young man. A lot of people didn't like that," he added, explaining that while he wasn’t "angry" about the circumstances, he "lost a lot behind it."
Earlier this year, before Starr was arrested for child molestation involving a 13-year-old boy, Chingy admitted that he nearly stopped being pictured with gay fans after the incident.
He said the same on The Jason Lee Show, sharing that Starr's actions pushed him to "act a certain way" towards LGBTQ+ fans.
