Jussie Smollett is speaking out about his infamous 2019 hate crime hoax.
The former Empire star was found guilty of five counts of disorderly conduct in 2021 for falsely calling the police to his Chicago home and claiming that two masked MAGA strangers attacked him on the street, poured bleach on him, and hurled slurs at him.
It soon came out that Smollett reportedly paid two Nigerian brothers $3500 to carry out the “attack.”
“That was a pretty dark day because that’s when everything clicked to me of what was happening,” Smollett told People. “A lot of things tested my strength, a lot of things tested my mental, but the one thing I never lost—I never started thinking that I am somebody that I’m not.”
Smollett was sentenced to 150 days in jail in 2022 but was released after six days after his attorney filed an appeal.
“I’m not going to sit here and victimize myself and be like ‘Woe is me,’ because there’s so many people that don’t have the platform or the resources that I have to protect themselves,” Smollett added.
