Ashanti’s name has been within the news repeatedly this past week in consequence of Irv Gotti’s latest documentary series, The Murder Inc. Story, on BET. The conversation began when Gotti made an appearance on the N.O.R.E podcast, Drink Champs, and went into great detail about dating the singer while he was separated from his wife. When their relationship became the main focus of last Tuesday’s episode of The Murder Inc. Story, audiences began to accuse the label CEO of being obsessive about Ashanti. And even label mate Ja Rule spoke out saying, he doesn’t “condone or agree with the behavior nor the way in which Gotti handled things on drink champs.”

When Irv Gotti approached us on the MTV VMA Red Carpet, we gave him a probability to reassess his comments given the backlash, but as a substitute he doubled down on what he calls his “truth.”

“It’s my life. They paid me a bunch of cash to discuss my life at Murder Inc. and I caught all this flack due to it,” Gotti tells ESSENCE. “It’s my life. I’m not a lying type person. I wish Ashanti all one of the best. For those who’re watching Ashanti, I wish you all one of the best. But I just told my truth.”

Up to now, Ashanti has not publicly responded to her former boss or spoken on the main points of their private relationship which also raised brows due to their 10-year age gap and the proven fact that Ashanti would have been around 19 or 20 years of age on the time he shared he kissed her. Nevertheless, Irv maintains his behavior wasn’t predatory.

“It was funny for me to see the backlash I received. They were attempting to get the #MeToo Movement and I used to be like, ‘Yo, I said I loved her. We were together for 3 years…I wish her all one of the best.”

Watch his full remarks within the video above.