Christian Keyes, best known for creating and starring in the BET+ series All the Queen’s Men, went public late Friday with claims of sexual harassment “for years” by a “billionaire” Hollywood mogul.
In an Instagram Live on December 15, Keyes did not name the alleged “predator,” but he did say he recorded some of their conversations with hidden devices. In an hour-long video statement, the actor claimed that the mogul offered him $100,000 to strip naked.
Christian Keyes posted the video on Instagram
“If you thought that Diddy s–t was crazy, you don’t even know,” Keyes said, referring to the four sexual abuse lawsuits recently filed against music mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs — who denied wrongdoing.
Keyes, 48, posted the video to Instagram with the caption, “This conversation needs to be had.”
The actor and model talked about the “trauma” of being harassed and said he wanted to make a statement about his traumatic experiences with “certain powers that be, that were moving inappropriately.”
“He was claiming that he had multiple young black men on the payroll, and they just had to show up when he requested them to be there,” Keyes said, suggesting that the alleged predator paid men for intimate encounters.
“I’ve done my best to forgive this person, but it happens. It happens. It’s not just women that have to deal with it, it will be men sometimes, and it will be men tempting men,” he stated.
Instead of rushing to success, Keyes said he took “the long way around” to build a career to “maintain my integrity.”
He went on to call the man a hero to many of his fans. “At some point, it’s going to have to come out,” he added.
The actor then displayed a pen camera image.
“I’ve kept one of these on me since ’05, whether it’s a keychain recorder or a pen because most predators will check your phone,” he said. “Once the sexual harassment started, I was like, I gotta protect myself, because I don’t want this person, as powerful as they are, to try and get in the way of my work.”
He claimed that the recordings show he was harassed by a man with a voice that the general public would recognize.
“I wasn’t working for him [at the time]. He showed up at my apartment and offered me $100,000 to take my clothes off. He said, ‘I don’t need to touch you; I just want to see you naked,’” Keyes alleged, adding that he declined the man’s proposition. The actor said he secretly recorded the incident after the man arrived at his doorstep to “offer” him a role.
In a separate incident, he claimed the man tried to “climb in bed” with him and grabbed his genitals after he became inebriated at the man’s house during a party.
At one point, the actor’s eyes welled up with tears, and his voice cracked.
Keyes admitted that he wished he’d spoken up years ago to save other men from being preyed on, but he was afraid. He said Diddy’s ex-girlfriend Casandra Ventura’s sexual abuse lawsuit gave him the courage to speak out.
“This industry is something else,” said Keyes.
Later in the video, he wiped tears from his eyes and said he learned from the alleged predator how “not” to be a boss or executive.
“My concern is that this person is still doing it,” said Keyes. “He’s still a predator, and it’s not okay. I wish I was brave enough to speak up back then.”
