Journalist and cultural critic Touré Neblett has a way with words. But his gift of gab may have gotten him in hot water. Touré, who contributed to Lifetime’s documentary Surviving R. Kelly, has been accused of sexual harassment by a woman he worked with on a talk show in 2017.
In a lengthy Instagram post, makeup artist Dani accused Touré of repeatedly asking her sexually charged questions while they worked together.
“Every Monday I used to work with him on a show in 2017 and he couldn’t stop asking me to do anal, how I looked naked, if I had sex over the weekend, what it would be like to fuck me, what his cum would look like on my face….”
Through his representative, Touré said he was simply engaging in “edgy, crass banter” with his colleague at the time. The 47-year-old married father-of-2 says he didn’t think what he said was offensive.
In the statement obtained by Essence, Touré said:
“On the show, our team, including myself, engaged in edgy, crass banter, that at the time I did not think was offensive for our tight-knit group. I am sorry for my language and for making her feel uncomfortable in any way. As a lead on the show, I should have refrained from this behavior. I have learned and grown from this experience.”
Touré interviewed R. Kelly for BET Network in 2008, after the singer was acquitted of 21 charges of child pornography.
In the interview, Touré asked Kelly “Do you like teenage girls?” To which Kelly replied, “When you say teenage, how old are you talking?”
In the six-hour Lifetime documentary which aired from July 3 to July 6, Touré shared his perception of that interview, which he detailed in a 2017 essay for The Daily Beast blog.
Photo by Stephen Lovekin/Getty Images
