Nelly apologized Tuesday after a video of him receiving oral sex somehow ended up on his Instagram Story.
“I sincerely apologize to the young lady and her family. This is unwanted publicity for her/them,” the “Hot in Herre” rapper, 47, said in a statement to TMZ. “This was an old video that was private and never meant to go public.”
While Nelly’s face was not visible in the X-rated clip, his voice could be heard as he filmed an unidentified woman performing oral sex on him.
The video, which was nearly one minute long, was quickly removed from the “Ride wit Me” performer’s account Tuesday afternoon, but not before several of his 3.3 million followers captured screen recordings and reposted them online.
Nelly’s team speculated he had been hacked, telling TMZ that they are investigating a breach and are concerned that more of his private content could end up on the internet, including financial information, personal documents and passwords.
Following the alleged leak, Nelly’s name started trending on Twitter, with some users cracking jokes and others pointing out that it would be wrong to share recordings of the video as it was posted without the anonymous woman’s consent.
“It’s hot in here I see did somebody set #Nelly up ?” one person tweeted.
The rapper’s name trended on Twitter after the clip surfaced.San Francisco Chronicle via Gett“Damn Nelly now I see why Ashanti ain’t want you back,” another wrote, referencing the rapper’s ex.
“while y’all are mentioning nelly I just wanna remind yall he has multiple rape and sexual assault allegations. 5 I believe,” a third person tweeted. (Nelly was accused of sexual assault in 2018 and arrested on suspicion of rape a year prior. He denied wrongdoing and was not charged.)
“Amidst the sharing, consuming, making memes and jokes about the Nelly video – consider there is also a woman in that video who didn’t consent to it going public,” another user pointed out.
Nelly’s rep did not immediately respond to Page Six’s request for comment.
