R&B singer Marques Houston is finally addressing the backlash he received after news surfaced that when he was 40 years in 2020, he married a 19-year-old woman, Miya Dickey, whom he first met when she was 17 years old.
The R&B singer appeared on TVOne Uncensored, where he acknowledged the backlash and sought to explain that even though many felt that he groomed Dickey, he believes their relationship is different. “Me and my wife’s situation is a little different,” he said in the snippet. “How we met, through mutual friends and everything like that. When I met my wife she was 17 so we had no real conversation or connection until she was of age,” he claims.
Marques Houston was called out by many on social media after news surfaced that he was dating the teenager. The announcement of their marriage also stunned many because Houston was a 40-year-old man marrying a barely legal teenager. At the time, Houston’s former manager, Chris Stokes, defended Houston after some fans claimed that Dickey and Houston had allegedly been involved since she was as young as 12. Dickey reportedly grew up with Stokes’s daughter, who is the same age.
There is also an inflammatory documentary that alleges that Dickey was a troubled teen who ran away from home and met Houston after an alleged “human trafficking” experience. Posters announcing her being missing at 14 years old can be found on the internet.
Marques Houston, however, says the age isn’t something that bothers either of them. “People don’t understand, and of course, I got a lot of backlash for marrying someone that was 19. When we did finally start to talk, I was like ‘this woman is like me!’ when I would talk to her, for one, we have a spiritual connection, we both love God, we both love Jehovah, and that was key,” he said.
He continued, “And being able to start being around her and talking to her… we connected to music, and you know her spirit, her kindness her heart reminded me of my mom and we connected on so many levels.”
Some social media users blasted Marques Houston on Wednesday as some said he was fibbing about the actual age he met the teen.
“She was actually 15 when they met which makes it even worse,” one person wrote on Instagram. “That’s what bothers me every interview he changes the number of her age,” another said. Another said, “Every single time he talks about this, her age gets higher and higher he met her at 15 at a Jehovah’s witness convention, and he sent his manager to get her number at 15 years old.”
Marques Houston and Miya Dickey welcomed a baby girl named Zari in 2021.
