Nicki Minaj and her husband, Kenneth Petty, have been hit with hefty claims from Petty's alleged rape victim, who filed a lawsuit last month, accusing the couple of harassment, intimidation and several other charges.
Jennifer Hough made an appearance on daytime talk show, The Real, this morning (Sept. 22), and has revealed that not only was she harassed, but her life was also threatened by an associate of Nicki and her husband. Petty was charged with first-degree rape in 1994 after Hough informed police that he raped her in a home in Jamaica, Queens after holding her at knifepoint near a bus stop.
"With them sending people to negotiate numbers as far as money is concerned with family members," the victim explained when asked how she was tormented by the couple. "And Nicki was the one who personally reached out to me in regards to helping her—helping them—in this situation. And then the threats that I received because I kept saying 'No' to every offer, to every suggestion. The last incident was when one of their associates put $20,000 on my lap and I still kept saying 'No.' The last message I received was that I should've taken the money ’cause they're gonna use that money to put on my head."
Hough, accompanied on the program with her attorney, Tyrone Blackburn—the legal counsel for several of T.I. and Tiny Harris' sexual assault accusers—also opened up about why she has chosen to speak up after being silent for many years.
"I'm tired of being afraid," she told the show's cohosts. "I feel like the actions that were taken in regards to this whole situation have put me in a different type of fear at my age now. And it was wrong. And I don't wanna be afraid anymore. So, the only way to not be afraid is to continue to speak up."
Jennifer Hough also shared the harrowing details of her sexual assault.
"It was Sept. 16 of 1994," she recounted. "It was a Friday morning, I was on my way to school, high school. I seen ’em at a bus stop and I didn't think anything of it other than, 'There goes Kenny across the street.' And he asked me where I was going, I said I was going to school. I asked him where he was going, he said he was going to school, too. I might've said something like, 'Yeah, right.' And I turned away from him to look for…we had dollar vans back then. So, I was looking for the bus or the dollar van and before you know it, he was grabbing a hold of my jacket."
Hough continued: "I felt something in my back, so I assumed it was a gun. And I started walking. And I'm pleading with him the whole way. I'm tryna understand what does he want and we get in front of this house that might've been the second or third house from the corner and he kinda reaches behind me with his foot to push the door open. And [he] pushes me up the steps, we walk [up] the steps and now, I'm crying. ’Cause now I'm inside. We walk up the steps and I'm continuously pleading with him. I'm asking, 'What do you want?' And like, 'If you just want me to chill here with you, I will.'"
Petty's alleged victim also shared: "And then he said I knew what he wanted. He pushed me down on the bed, we wrestled for my clothes ’cause all I could do was hold my pants as tight as I can. I don't know why it didn't dawn on me to really fight. I just held onto my pants and he'd hold my arms down. He squeezed the sides of my stomach so hard and so I'd let go and as soon as I'd let go, he'd grab my pants. It was like a tug of war. After a while, I just got tired. I just felt, maybe if he'd hurry up, I could just hurry up and leave. After he got off top of me, he stood in the mirror [and] he'd beat his chest. And he'd say, 'I'm the man. I'm the man.' And so I'm asking him, 'Please let me go. I won't tell nobody.'"
Hough added: "He went to light a cigarette and I thought, maybe…I seen a roll of toilet paper on the dresser. I thought maybe if I light the cigarette, I could get the match to set the toilet paper on fire. And it went out. I squirted his contact cleaner in his face and he was like, 'Thank you for wiping my face.' And at that time, I just seen this big plastic bottle, almost like the bleach bottle. And I just took it and swung it at him with all my might. And when he went to get duck, I pushed him and he fell between the beds. And I just ran and I kept running and before I knew it I was in front of my school."
When asked by The Real's Garcelle Beauvais, "When it was announced that Kenneth Perry was marrying Nicki Minaj what was your first thought about that news?," Hough replied, "I was so afraid of being found out. I was so afraid of being known as the person he violated and I didn’t want that, it’s Nicki Minaj."
Nicki and Petty got married in October of 2019.
Hough also told that she spoke to Nicki in March of last year, saying, "She called me and she said that she got word that I was willing to help them out in a situation. I didn’t understand what she was referring to. She offered to fly me and my family to L.A. She um…I turned it down. I told her woman to woman this really happened and I [haven’t] spoken to her since."
Kenneth Petty was convicted of first-degree attempted rape in connection to the sexual assault on Jennifer Hough back in 1995. Hough says she was convinced by her family to inform the judge in the case that she wanted to drop the charges out of fear for her family's safety and later relocated from New York City following the incident. However, the District Attorney reportedly reassured her that she had nothing to worry about pertaining to the case.
Hough added that Nicki and Petty had associates harass herself, her daughter and family members—some she isn't even in touch with– to get her to recant her statement about the rape case.
Kenneth Petty, who was 16 years old at the time of the attempted rape, served four years behind bars and was ordered to register as a sex offender in New York City.
In February of 2020, Petty was indicted after failing to register as sex offender in California, where he resides with his wife. He turned himself in a week later, was released on a $20,000 bail and properly registered with the state of California. The couple had moved to the state one year prior.
Last month, Petty struck a plea deal in the case where he pleaded guilty to one count of failing to register as a sex offender in the case.
Shortly after Petty agreed to the deal with the United States Attorney's Office for the Central District of California, Hough's lawsuit was filed, accusing him and Nicki of direct and indirect harassment, presumably to prevent the victim from speaking on the rape case.
XXL has reached out to a rep for Nicki Minaj and Kenneth Petty's attorney for a comment.
Check out Jennifer Hough's interview on The Real below.