Nicki Minaj and Kenneth Petty’s accuser speaks out in first TV interview

Jennifer Hough,  who accused Nicki Minaj‘s husband Kenneth Petty of sexual assault in 1994 and has filed a lawsuit against the couple for intimidation, has spoken out in a new interview.

In her first on-camera interview for The Real alongside her attorney, Tyrone A. Blackburn, Hough said she was speaking up because she's "tired of being afraid".

Hough alleged Petty raped her at knifepoint in 1994, when both were 16 years old. Petty was charged with first-degree attempted rape in 1995, and pleaded guilty to attempted rape. He spent about four and a half years in prison as a result.

Petty was arrested last year for failing to register as a sex offender, as required by his sentence. He accepted a plea deal for federal charges and will be sentenced in January 2022, according to the Hollywood Reporter.

Hough filed a lawsuit against Petty and Minaj in August this year, accusing them of “witness intimidation, intentional infliction of emotional distress, harassment” and other charges. She is also suing Petty for sexual assault and battery in relation to the 1995 conviction.

She alleges that in 2020, shortly after Petty’s arrest, Minaj called and offered to fly her and her family to Los Angeles, to “help them out in a situation”. Hough said she declined and claims that she and her family “suffered an onslaught of harassing calls and unsolicited visits” afterwards, including offers of payment if she signed a statement recanting her original allegations against Petty.

Hough also alleges she was offered  offered sums of $500,000 and $20,000, and that when she refused the offer of $20,000, it was implied that the money would turn into a bounty. "The last message I received was that I should have taken the money, because they’re going to use that money to put on my head," she said.

"You can't intimidate people to make things go better for you, and that's what they did"

Minaj and Petty have not yet publicly commented on Hough’s allegations and the harassment lawsuit. Minaj hit back at online scrutiny of Petty’s past as a sex offender when their relationship was made public in 2018, claiming that it was over an incident where "he was 15, she was 16… in a relationship", when both were in fact 16 years old at the time.

Hough has denied she was in a relationship with Petty.

She says she was "so afraid of being found out" when Minaj and Petty announced their marriage in October 2019.

When asked if justice had been served following Petty’s 1995 conviction and sentence, she tearfully responded that: "I don’t think I thought about justice per se because I was still blaming myself. I thought it was something that I did or didn’t do.

"I don’t think I thought about if I got justice. I just knew that he did what he did and he went to jail and I had to leave my family, I had to leave my home and I had to move away."

Watch the full interview with Hough on The Real below.

In an exclusive interview,, Jennifer Hough, the woman suing Nicki Minaj and her husband Kenneth Petty over allegations including witness intimidation and harassment, opens up about the lawsuit and speaks out for the first time on camera. (1/3) pic.twitter.com/NTiGMUzsLo

— The Real (@TheRealDaytime) September 22, 2021

To contact the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre, freephone: 1800 778 888, or Women's Aid at 1800 341 900.