Marques Houston’s Former Immature Bandmate Young Rome Condemns His Comments About Women His Age Coming With ‘Baggage’ And ‘Kids’

Marques Houston made several headlines this month regarding his marriage to a woman nearly half his age and his recent comments about dating older women.

While many condemned the “Naked” artist for his remarks, former Immature groupmate Jerome “Young Rome” Jones also took to social media and called out Houston for his insensitive comments about women, Vibe reported.

“…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,” Jones said in a statement he shared to his Instagram Stories on Wednesday.

He continued, “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.”

The Los Angeles native also mentioned that growing up as a member of the ’90s R&B trio, they never understood what colorism was like in the music industry regarding women.

He said he, Houston, and third Immature member Kelton “LDB” Kessee never “intentionally” isolated women of all backgrounds in their music videos. In addition, he said the women who were part of their loyal fanbase are now possibly single mothers.

“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,” Jones 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.”

Jones’ remarks come days after Houston shared his thoughts on older women in an exclusive interview with Page Six earlier this week. He told the outlet women his age have too much “baggage.”

“A red flag to me [was] always with a woman that had a kid,” he said. “Nothing against single women, but single mothers with children are a red flag for me.”

As Blavity reported, the Sister, Sister alum sat down in another interview with TV One’s Uncensored series and talked about his controversial relationship with now-22-year-old Miya Dickey.

“Me and my wife’s situation is a little different,” Houston said on the show. “When I met my wife, she was 17. So, we had no [real] conversation, no [real] connection until, you know, she was of age.”

He faced backlash in 2020 after he wed then-19-year-old Dickey when he was 38. Now, at their respective ages of 41 and 22, the couple shares an infant daughter born in 2021.