Lee Daniels is setting the record straight. After Page Six claimed he and Jussie Smollett fell out over R. Kelly‘s reported involvement in Smollett’s music on Empire, Daniels says that’s absolutely “false.”
“The information regarding my relationship with Jussie prior to his departure from Empire is false,”” he said in a statement to the gossip site. “And ‘I have no personal or professional relationship with R. Kelly. I never have.’”
According to the initial report by Page Six, Smollett and Daniels’ relationship was “nonexistent” way before Smollett’s alleged hate crime hoax happened in January 2019.
A source told the gossip site that Daniels wanted the now-disgraced Kelly to write songs for Smollett’s Empire character — and even Smollett’s personal album. But, Smollett pushed back, refusing to have anything to do with Kelly, who already had a bad rep in the music world.
The insider also alleges that because of it, Smollett would often complain to Fox execs about Daniels.
“It was things like that that did not sit well with Lee,” the source told Page Six. “He [was frustrated by] Jussie because he was constantly going over his head to Fox about their creative differences.”
As previously reported, Smollett was charged with filing a false report after police determined he hired two brothers to supposedly commit a hate-crime on him in Chicago. Charges were later dropped, but a special prosecutor re-examined the case, and new charges were filed against Smollett in February.
