The 2019 MTV Movie & TV Awards got off to a rocky start on Monday, June 17, when the show’s host, Zachary Levi, made a joke about Ray J and Kim Kardashian’s infamous sex tape.
“And, of course, America’s other sweetheart Ray J, from Love & Hip Hop, is here,” the Shazaam! star, 38, said in his opening monologue after shouting-out Sandra Bullock. “Although I’m sure some of you are more familiar with his work as a cameraman.”
The camera then panned to Ray J, 38, and his wife, Princess Love, who — with a smile on her face — flipped her middle fingers to the camera. “I had to,” Levi continued. “I’m sorry, it was collectively a great idea.”
Kardashian, 38, made headlines in 2007 when a home video she and the “One Wish” singer made years prior was leaked. The reality star has since spoken out on multiple occasions about the clip.
“Absolutely. Everyone knows it. My jaw was shaking,” Kardashian told her sister Kendall Jenner during a November 2018 episode of Keeping Up With the Kardashians when the model, 23, asked if she was on drugs when the sex tape was being filmed. “I definitely went through a wild phase.”
That same month, Ray J denied claims that he would ever speak negatively about Kardashian and their relationship.
“I felt like I needed to come online and shut down all of these false rumors that [are] going on about me and what I said about somebody I’ve been with in the past,” he said in an Instagram clip at the time of his ex. “Let me make this one thing clear: I’m in a great place in my life. I’m happy. I love my wife [Princess Love]. I’ve got a beautiful new baby girl — her name is Melody Love Norwood — and I’ve been trying to be the best parent I can be. I would never say these things after watching my wife go through labor for 28 hours, OK?
Ray J added: “The person I am now is not who I was in the past. I need y’all to give me a chance to grow and to love and to respect the people I’m with without trying to slander my name, please. God is working, and obviously, the devil is trying to work, too, but it will not happen. I will not let that happen, y’all. I love my wife and I have nothing but respect for everybody out there, past and present. False rumors.”
The singer and the Selfish author dated on and off from 2003 to 2006.
