Shannon Sharpe breaks his silence on the sexual assault lawsuit he is facing.
We recently reported that Sharpe is being sued for $50 million by an OnlyFans model who says she was physically abused by him and was threatened by him. The woman, Gabriella Zuniga, also noted that she was 19 years old at the time when she started dating Sharpe, 56.
Sharpe and his legal team have denied any wrongdoing within their relationship and said that they were in a consensual relationship and displayed explicit text messages as proof. Now, Sharpe had addressed the lawsuit on the recent episode of the “Night Cap” podcast with co-host Chad Ochocinco.
He started by thanking everyone who reached out to him and sent their love and support during this time. “I just need the people that I love to love me. And obviously, the elephant is not in the room, he outside. But everybody knows what I’m going through. A lot of people have a lot to say,” the former NFL player said. “But, I met a lot of people and thank y’all to everybody that’s reached out and [sending] thoughts and prayers—I sincerely appreciate that. But when you think about it, Ocho, man: 50 percent of people don’t care that you got problems. The other 50 percent are glad you got’em. So now what?”
He also talked about how imperative it is to block out the negativity. “Everybody gonna have an opinion. Everybody think they know you…when they really don’t. They heard this, they heard that. Have you ever talked to Shannon?…So what makes you think you know him? How well do you know him?” he said.
After the lawsuit was revealed, Shannon Sharpe announced that he was stepping back from his role at ESPN. There’s no timeline on when he will return.