Dr. Dre came under major fire last week when his ex-wife, Michel’le, and former TV personality Dee Barnes both criticized him for abusing them in the past, which, as they both pointed out, wasn’t included in the hit N.W.A. biopic Straight Outta Compton. Since then, Dr. Dre has come out and publicly apologized to “the women I’ve hurt,” but now both Michel’le and Barnes are opening up about Dre’s apology.
As previously reported, Dre told The New York Times last week, “Twenty-five years ago I was a young man drinking too much and in over my head with no real structure in my life. However, none of this is an excuse for what I did. I’ve been married for 19 years and every day I’m working to be a better man for my family, seeking guidance along the way. I’m doing everything I can so I never resemble that man again.”
“I apologize to the women I’ve hurt,” he continued. “I deeply regret what I did and know that it has forever impacted all of our lives.”
In a recent interview with the BBC, Michel’le, who has spoken candidly about the abuse she endured with Dre, shared that she feels Dre’s apology is insincere.
“I don’t really think it’s a sincere apology,” she said. “I didn’t ask for a public apology and I think if he is going to apologize he should do it individually. To just group us like we are nothing and nobody — I just don’t think it’s sincere … Treat us like we have names.”
“He’s selling a movie. I just think it’s good PR at the moment,” she added.
Michel’le also spoke again about the abuse and explained that she thought being abused by her man was normal in marriages.
“I thought he cared about me. I didn’t know any better. I just really thought that was what men do, I thought it was a form of love,” she said.
She added, “When I was a little kid, we got whipped. It was nothing new to me, I was used to it. I was co-dependent on him — he was my world. So you don’t just pack up and go.”
Michel’le says the abuse was so bad that Dre once beat her for not cooking a satisfying meal.
“One night I baked him chicken and I didn’t make enough. He beat me because I didn’t have another piece of chicken,” she said. “It became that kind of relationship. I would move out for three or four months and come back. We just had a cycle.”
However, after finally leaving behind the abusive relationship, Michel’le says she began openly talking about the abuse at women’s shelters and she now wants other women to learn from her survival story.
“I don’t want this new generation to think that it’s OK. I’ve never stopped talking about it. That’s what’s so funny about this coming up now,” Michel’le said.
Well, Michel’le isn’t the only woman who commented on Dre’s apology. Read what Barnes had to say about it after the cut.
