Actor Jussie Smollett has checked himself into a rehab facility.
Smollett’s rep states that “Jussie has had an extremely difficult past few years. He has quietly been working very hard for some time now and we are proud of him for taking these necessary steps.” Reports say that Smollett is in an outpatient program.
This news comes a year after the Empire star was sentenced to 150 days in jail for staging a hate crime against himself. Along with the jail time, he also received 30 months of probation and was ordered to pay a $25,000 fine and $120,106 in restitution.
We reported that he claimed that he was attacked in 2019 by two white men wearing masks while in Chicago. However, the alleged attackers were later identified as Abimbola and Olabinjo Osundario. They were paid $3,500 by Smollett to stage the attack and then given $1 million each to lie about being involved.
He would later be found guilty on five counts of disorderly conduct of lying to the police. He has maintained his innocence. “If I had done something like this, it would mean that I stuck my fist in the pain of Black Americans in this county for over 400 years,” the actor said in an interview. “We’re not even talking about in Africa because that’s an even deeper, larger conversation. It would mean that I stuck my fist in the fears of the LGBTQ community all over the world. I’m not that motherf*****.”
Jussie Smollett and his legal team filed an appeal and requested a new trial.