Radio personality Charlamagne Tha God, 47, has added his two cents in the back-and-forth between Alexis Ohanian, 42, and Stephen A. Smith, 58.
Ohanian had a problem with Smith blasting his wife, Serena Williams, for performing alongside Kendrick Lamar at the Super Bowl LIX halftime show in February.
Williams, 44, popped up on stage in New Orleans with Lamar, 38, while the hip-hop superstar performed his chart-topping “Not Like Us” diss track directed at her ex-boyfriend Drake, 38.
Before Serena’s cameo at the Super Bowl, Drake had previously taken jabs at her and her spouse on the “Middle of the Ocean” song in 2022, calling Ohanian a “groupie” on the track.
Smith called out for Williams trolling Drake while on a global stage with her former fling’s bitter rival, Lamar. The ESPN personality even suggested the move was a divorceable offense.
Ohanian then pulled up to Smith’s job during a taping of ESPN’s “First Take” program on Oct. 9, even though the sports pundit appeared on the cable broadcast remotely.
Smith was not in the studio during the now viral, light-hearted confrontation, which led Charlamagne to share his take on the Ohanian versus Smith situation during a segment on “The Breakfast Club.”
“I don’t see nothing wrong with it, but it wasn’t a real pull-up,” Charlamagne stated on Oct. 13. “A pull-up is when the person is there and says what you need to say to the person’s face.” say to the person’s face.”
He suggested that Ohanian should have waited until Smith was physically present in the same space.
After Ohanian got wind of Charlamagne’s criticism, which included him mistakenly calling the Reddit co-founder “Alex,” he fired back in a tweet that same day.
“@cthagod — all my friends call me Alexis. And I asked to come on ‘First Take’ to chat with SAS for [quite] some time, (keep in mind I own a handful of pro sports teams and started a T+F league, there’s plenty of sports stuff to talk about),” Ohanian revealed. “And my publicist kept getting told it wasn’t going to happen.”
He continued, “Then I went to the top and made it clear I wanted to come on the show to chat in person, and they let it happen. Then I found out when I got to [the] studio, SAS was remote from ATL that morning. Odd timing.”
Ohanian seems to be waving the white flag as he concluded, “But I’m back to building now (ATHLOS was indeed a huge success) and have no ill-will toward SAS.”
The exchange did not end there. On Oct. 15, “The Breakfast Club” presenters reflected on the headline-generating debate about how a husband should defend his wife.
“I stand on that. It’s not a real pull-up. A pull-up is when you look at somebody in their eye, face-to-face,” Charlamagne insisted. His co-hosts, Jess Hilarious and DJ Envy, quickly jumped in to disagree with their colleague.
“It’s Alex Ohanian, what are you talking about? He not Birdman,” said Jess taking a jab at another viral episode of the show when Birdman pulled up to address Charlamagne.
After Charlamagne and Ohanian got their respective takes off, fans also weighed in with their thoughts on how Smith’s remarks about Williams ballooned into disputes involving multiple other people.
“Sir, you are a real one! I am loving your energy and the support you show your amazing wife. Wishing you, Serena, and your family all the best,” one X user replied to Ohanian’s clapback at Charlamagne.
A second person posted, “The thing is…you are both right. Stephen A.’s sentiment was a correct one, but… he should also STFU and mind his business. Especially on such a large platform. Hopefully, the D measuring is done now. They [are] both way richer financially than I’ll ever be.”
“Alexis is getting tired of being the butt of the jokes or hearing people talking s–t about his wife. I don’t blame him,” someone commented on “The Breakfast Club” YouTube video.
Another comment read, “Alexis said on ‘First Take’ he was hoping SAS was going to be there in person. That means Alexis planned on seeing him in person. It wasn’t a pull-up, so what? SAS still punked out.”
But Charlamagne did agree that, “All that stuttering and stammering shouldn’t have happened, especially over Zoom. We not even in the same room.”
Ohanian wed Williams in November 2017 in New Orleans, the same city that hosted this year’s Super Bowl LIX. The pair share two daughters, 8-year-old Alexis Olympia Ohanian Jr. and 2-year-old Adira River Ohanian.
Charlamagne married his high school sweetheart, Jessica Gadsden, in 2014. The Radio Hall of Famer and his wife have four daughters whom they kept out of the spotlight. Smith has never been married, but he does have two daughters, one being 17-year-old actress Samantha A. Smith.
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