Smollett reveals feelings of 'emasculated' after public reaction to alleged attack
Jussie Smollett has discussed his initial reaction to the 2019 alleged hate crime, which he was later accused of staging, in the Netflix documentary The Truth About Jussie Smollett. In the documentary, Smollett describes feeling "eulogized" and "emasculated" by the rapid spread of reports about the incident. He claimed two men assaulted him in Chicago, but brothers Abimbola and Olabinjo Osundairo alleged Smollett paid them $3,500 to stage the attack. Prosecutors claimed Smollett orchestrated the incident due to dissatisfaction with the studio's response to hate mail while filming Empire. Smollett was convicted of five counts of disorderly conduct in 2021, receiving a 150-day jail sentence, but his conviction was overturned by the Illinois Supreme Court in 2024 due to a non-prosecution agreement.