There have been rumors about Tyler Perry’s sexuality for years and years. Most of the rumors are simply that he’s on the downlow, or that he’s bisexual and never spoke about it publicly. Of course, it’s completely possible that he’s just really, really private about his personal life – he’s spoken about his horrible childhood, being abused as a child, and the scars that left on him. Throughout the 2010s, he was in a long-time partnership with Gelila Bekele, who is the mother of Tyler’s only child Aman. His relationship with Bekele ended in 2020, and he hasn’t been associated with anyone else publicly since then. Well, Tyler’s private life and sexuality are being served up for public discourse this week. An actor named Derek Dixon has filed a lawsuit against Tyler, claiming Tyler sexually harassed him and assaulted him.
Tyler Perry is facing an accusation of sexual assault — a claim coming from an actor on his long-running TV show, “The Oval,” and one Tyler’s camp calls a “scam” … TMZ has learned.
Derek Dixon filed a lawsuit against Perry, and in the docs he claims he and the director met at an event back in 2019 — in Derek’s words, Tyler picked him out of the crowd and asked for his phone number, suggesting he might have a role for him. As it turns out, he did … Derek says Tyler gave him a small role in 2 episodes of a show called, “Ruthless.”
Then, in January 2020, Derek says Tyler invited him to his Atlanta home, and he accepted, hoping to build a friendship that would lead to more acting gigs. But, according to the suit, while there … Derek drank too much, and ended up sleeping in a guest room. In the docs, obtained by TMZ, Derek claims Tyler got into the bed with him, and started touching his thighs — and, although, he rejected the advances that night … he claims Tyler remained interested.
Shortly thereafter, Derek says he landed the role of Dale in “The Oval” — great for his career, but he claims it was around this time that Tyler also started firing off sexually suggestive texts … including asking what Drew’s sexual preferences were, and telling him he has sex with men. Derek also notes his character, Dale, was written as a gay, homeless and desperate store clerk who had to sleep with other characters for a place to stay. He claims that’s exactly what Tyler told him he was looking for in a real life sexual partner … someone who would be loyal and dependent upon Tyler.
Derek says he feared his career would be derailed if he flatly rejected Tyler — so, instead he told him he just wasn’t “the sexual type” … but he was always terrified he’d lose his job if he complained of sexual harassment. To that point, he says Tyler, once again, invited him to Atlanta later in 2020 … and things allegedly took a dark turn. Derek claims Perry greeted him warmly, but quickly started a sexually charged conversation — like asking him if he “likes it rough in bed” — and then grabbed Derek by the throat while saying, “Look how excited you just got.” He says he pushed Tyler away, and that was the end of that alleged incident.
The most aggressive incident allegedly went down in June 2021, again at Tyler’s Atlanta home — Dixon was staying in the guest house and wearing only his underwear, when he says Tyler came in to give him a goodnight hug. He alleges Tyler yanked down his underwear, groped his butt and said, “Relax and just let it happen” and assured him it wasn’t going to hurt. Dixon says he managed to rebuff this advance by changing the subject.
According to the suit, Dixon finally filed a complaint with Equal Employment and Opportunity Commission in June 2024, and then quit “The Oval,” saying he could no longer put up with the alleged sexual harassment.
Dixon is suing Tyler and Tyler Perry Studios for quid pro quo and workplace sexual harassment and sexual assault and battery … and he’s seeking $260 million in damages.
Tyler’s attorney Matthew Boyd tells us, “This is an individual who got close to Tyler Perry for what now appears to be nothing more than setting up a scam. But Tyler will not be shaken down and we are confident these fabricated claims of harassment will fail.”
It will be interesting to see how far this gets, and whether there’s any kind of settlement. Will this be a situation similar to Jay-Z, where Jay fought like hell against the accusations? If I’m being honest, I totally believe that Tyler would flirt with an actor or give a role to someone he found attractive. But the stuff about the assaults… no, I have a hard time believing all of that.
