Singer and actor Marques Houston has found himself in hot water after he made some very controversial remarks about "older women."
The 41-year-old initially made headlines back in 2020 when he announced that he would be tying the knot with his then-19-year-old girlfriend, Miya Dickey.
It was also revealed that while Dickey may have been over the legal threshold at the time, the pair met two years before, in 2018, through a mutual friend.
Houston has already faced backlash online for the rather large age gap between the pair, but things have recently been cranked up a notch after the entertainer made some disparaging comments about older women and why he refuses to date them.
Speaking to Page Six during a new interview, the 41-year-old described women his own age as having "baggage."
"A red flag to me [was] always with a woman that had a kid," he said. "Nothing against single women, but single mothers with children are a red flag for me."
"I tip my hat and respect women that are raising children on their own," he continued. "But when I grew up, I never really wanted to have kids."
He told the outlet that this outlook was inspired by his father, who urged him to have children with a woman who hasn't had any.
"I would talk to my dad a lot, and he would always tell me to have your own kids because you never know what the baby daddies are about," he said. "So if you’re gonna have kids, make sure it is with a woman that never had kids. So that was always my red flag.
"And a woman with an attitude. I don’t like women with funky attitudes," he added.
Houston welcomed his first child with Dickey in 2021, just a year after the pair got married.
Comparing his wife to older women, the actor emphasized that the two have different "outlooks on life."
"I’m 41, she is 22. I could’ve married a 44-year-old woman, and it could’ve been disastrous," he said. "Women that are my age... they kind of have a different outlook on life. Like a lot of women my age are very independent. They are very like, 'I don’t need a man to do this for me 'cause I can do it for myself.' I come from a generation that I love to provide for my wife."
He added: "There’s a lot of women my age I’ve dated, they may have baggage. They may have kids, they may not. There’s so many different women I’ve been with throughout my life, and it just so happens to be that this one [Miya] caught my heart.
"Everything that I prayed for — and everything that I wanted in a woman — she came with. Although she was young, I’m young in spirit," he told the outlet.
Of course, fans were left less than impressed with Houston's comments.
"i’m still waiting on Marques Houston to tell us what a 35+ year old has in common with a teenager.," tweeted one user after hearing what he had to say.
Another added: "Marques Houston is a weirdo. No matter how he tries to slice it or dice it, he was talking to and engaging with a minor. What do you even talk about with a teenager who isn’t family or a god child as a 35+ year old man to build a connection?"
A third added: "We should’ve known something was off with Marques Houston when he was running around like this back In the immature days."
"I wish Marques Houston would shut up because he's really confirming how gross he is," another wrote.
In the wake of his controversial comments, a member of Immature, the former boyband he was in has spoken out, criticizing Houston and apologizing on his behalf.
"...Women today have enough battles to endure including the policing of their bodies, equal pay in the workplace and beauty standards," Young Rome said in the lengthy statement. "It is never ok to degrade one group of women in order to praise another."
The artist then went on to explain that the group was young and didn't fully understand the importance of issues like colorism and sexism back in the 90s before commending their fans for sticking by them even when they did make those past mistakes.
"As artists, it has always been important to us that the content of our music and who we represent as men would never disrespect women (especially women of color) and his views do not reflect those of the group," he concluded.
But it seems as though the singer is used to this type of backlash from fans as he also noted in the interview: "In the Immature days, we [would] have light-skinned girls in our music videos. Then people would question... 'Why can’t you get a black girl?'
"And then it’s like, 'Oh yeah, I only like light-skinned girls.' Then the plus-size girls will come and get me. I was like, 'Man, I can’t catch a break.'"
Someone needs to tell Houston that he can, in fact, "catch a break" if he thinks a bit longer before he speaks.
