Young Rome Condemns Immature Groupmate Marques Houston’s Remarks On Women Their Age
Marques Houston recently shared his thoughts on dating women his own age before marrying a woman 19 years younger than him. Many took issue with his assessment, as the 41-year-old called women with children “red flags” and shared his distaste for those with “baggage” or who move too independently.
The R&B singer’s Immature groupmate, Jerome “Young Rome” Jones (formerly known as Romeo) couldn’t disagree more, and took to social media to call out his longtime friend.
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“…as a member of Immature, I would like to extend my sincerest apologies in regards to the insensitive statements made by my former group member Marques Houston,” Rome shared via his Instagram Wednesday.
“We were raised by a tribe of strong independent women who faced hardships we will never fully understand. Women today have enough battles to endure, including the policing of their bodies, equal pay in the workplace, and beauty standards. It is never ok to degrade one group of women in order to praise another. Black women in particular are often on the receiving end of the constant negative stereotypes they fight against daily.”
He went on to say that as “an adolescent group in the 90s” the pair and third member, Kelton “LDB” Kessee, didn’t understand the role colorism played in the entertainment industry, and “never intentionally isolated any particular group of women in our music videos.”
“We would be nothing without the loyal fans who have stood by us for three decades, some who happen to now be hardworking single mothers,” Rome added. “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 [Marques’] views do not reflect those of the group.”
In a conversation with PageSix earlier this week, Houston offered, “Nothing against single women, but single mothers with children are a red flag for me.”
He went on, “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.
“There’s a lot of women my age I’ve dated, they may have baggage,” Houston added. “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 [wife 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.”
Houston was met with backlash after it was revealed that he met his future wife when she was 17. On a recent episode of TVOne’s Uncensored, the R&B crooner claimed the pair didn’t pursue romance until Dickey was of age.
