Jennifer Hough, the woman who accused Nicki Minaj’s husband Kenneth Petty of rape in 1994, appeared on The Real Wednesday in a comprehensive interview saying she’s ‘tired of being afraid’ as she opened up about her experiences with both Minaj and Petty, past and present.

The appearance came on the heels of Hough, 43, filing a suit against the couple in New York last month, accusing them of harassment, witness intimidation, and intentional infliction of emotional distress.

Hough in the suit also named Petty specifically for sexual assault, over the September 16, 1994 attack, according to TMZ.

Jennifer Hough speaks out against Kenneth Petty and Nicki Minaj

The latest: Jennifer Hough, 43, the woman who accused Nicki Minaj’s husband Kenneth Petty of rape in 1994, appeared on The Real Wednesday in a comprehensive interview saying she’s ‘tired of being afraid’ as she opened up about her experiences with both, past and present

‘I felt like the actions that were taken in regards to this whole situation, have put me in a different type of fear at my age now,’ Hough said on the show. ‘It was wrong. And I don’t want to be afraid anymore, so the only way not to be afraid is to continue to speak up.’

Hough, who appeared with her lawyer Tyrone A. Blackburn, said that she filed the $500,000 suit against the couple in a move to make clear ‘they were wrong’ in their interactions with her.

She said of Petty: ‘He did something a long time ago and he had consequences that he was supposed to stick with. What they did to me and my family wasn’t OK.

‘It wasn’t right and it doesn’t matter how much money you have. It doesn’t matter what your status is, you can’t intimidate people to make things go better for you. And that’s what they did.’

The appearance came on the heels of Hough, 43, filing a suit against the couple in New York last month, accusing them of harassment, witness intimidation, and intentional infliction of emotional distress

Minaj reportedly started dating Petty after he got out of prison, when he was 21 and she was just 16. The couple are pictured together in February 2019

In the emotional appearance, Hough explained the details of the 1994 incident in Jamaica, Queens, New York, which led to Petty’s conviction the following year when he entered a guilty plea to attempted rape

Hough said that she was coming forward to set an example for her daughters amid the traumatic life experiences.

‘I want my daughters to know that as they grow, as they experience life as they come in contact with friends, family, strangers whatever, that they’ll have the strength to know that they have a voice, and they should use it,’ she said. ‘And don’t ever let anybody try to silence them.’

In the emotional appearance, Hough explained the details of the 1994 incident in Jamaica, Queens, New York, which led to Petty’s conviction the following year when he entered a guilty plea to attempted rape.

Hough said she was 16 when she was walking alongside Petty and that ‘before you know it, he was grabbing a hold of my jacket.

‘I felt something in my back so I just assumed there was a gun,’ she said. ‘And I started walking. And I’m pleading with him the whole way, trying to understand what he wants.’

She explained the details of the alleged sexual assault, as she said Petty told her that she ‘knew what he wanted’ prior to the attack.

‘I didn’t know why it didn’t dawn on me to like really fight,’ she said on the show. ‘I just held on to my pants and he held my arms down and squeezed the sides of my stomach so hard. I let go and as soon as I let go he grabbed my pants. It was like a tug of war and after a while I just got tired.’

Hough said Petty ‘stood in the mirror and beat his chest’ following the attack, after which she told a guard at a nearby school, who contacted police, leading to Petty’s arrest at the house.

Hough, who appeared with her lawyer Tyrone A. Blackburn, said that she filed the $500,000 suit against the couple in a move to make clear ‘they were wrong’ in their interactions with her

Hough said that she was dismayed when Minaj and Petty wed October 21, 2019, as she felt ‘so afraid of being known as the person [Petty] violated’

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In regards to allegations Petty’s relatives made that the pair was dating at the time of the incident, Hough said they ‘were never in a relationship’ and ‘never had no type of romantic anything.

‘We never talked on the phone. We never hung out together. I just knew him from the neighborhood.’

Hough said she looked to drop the charges in an effort to quell pressure from the situation that she blamed herself over, and that ‘shortly after that,’ she moved out of New York.

Asked if she felt that justice was served in the case, Petty said, ‘I don’t think I thought about justice per se, because I was still blaming myself.

‘And thought it was something that I did or didn’t do. I don’t think I thought about if I got justice. I just knew he did what he did and he went to jail and I had to leave my family. I had to leave my home. And I had to move away.’

Hough said that she was dismayed when Minaj and Petty wed October 21, 2019, as she felt ‘so afraid of being known as the person [Petty] violated.’

She said she was ‘so afraid of being found out,’ and ‘so afraid of being known as the person he violated.

‘And I didn’t want that. You know, it’s Nicki Minaj. I didn’t want that to reflect on my children.’

Hough said that she was dismayed when Minaj and Petty wed October 21, 2019, as she felt ‘so afraid of being known as the person [Petty] violated’

The victim first came forward with her alarming allegations in an interview with the Daily Beast in March, using only her first name, Jennifer. In January she posted a video (pictured) showing her face for the first time, in which she tearfully pleaded: ‘Tell your f**king people to leave my family alone … leave me and my family the f**k alone’

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In regards to a 2018 social media post from Minaj downplaying the incident, she said, ‘It was like reliving it again because it was a lie – it wasn’t true.

‘We both were 16. We were never in a relationship. It just felt woman-to-woman, that was wrong of her because I don’t know you and you don’t know me to know that that statement you put out to the world to be true. You have 150-something million followers … they all believed it. It hurt coming from another woman.’

Petty’s conviction forced Petty to register as a sex offender, but he failed to do so in the state of California when he moved there with Minaj, and he was arrested in March 2020.

Hough opened up about an exchange she had with Minaj in March of 2020 in which she claims the pop star looked to work out an arrangement in which she would pay her to recant her past allegations toward Petty.

‘She called me and she said that she got word that I was willing to help them out in a situation,’ she said. ‘I didn’t understand what she was referring to. She offered to fly me and my family to LA. I turned it down. And I told her, woman-to-woman, this really happened. And I hadn’t spoken to her since.’

Hough claimed Minaj and Petty began harassing her immediately after Petty was arrested, and tried to get her to recant her testimony. She said that she has consistently declined offers from Minaj and Petty, which have led to their associates approaching her with counter offers.

‘Nicki is the one who personally reached out to me, in regards to helping her, helping them in this situation,’ she said. ‘And then the threats that I received because I kept saying no to every offer, to every suggestion.

‘The last incident was when one of their associates put $20,000 dollars on my lap. And I still kept saying no.’

In a lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court in Eastern New York, Hough says she ‘has not worked since May of 2020 due to severe depression, paranoia, constant moving, harassment and threats from the defendants and their associates. She is currently living in isolation out of fear of retaliation.’

The lawsuit came just days after Petty accepted a plea deal on the count of failure to register as a sex offender in California.

Hough has previously only been named as ‘Jennifer’ in interviews, but is named in the lawsuit and gave an interview Friday using her full name to The New York Times.

In January she posted a video online showing her face for the first time, in which she tearfully pleaded with Minaj: ‘Tell your f**king people to leave my family alone… Leave me and my family the f**k alone.’

Many of the alarming allegations in the lawsuit are the same as ones Jennifer made in an interview with the Daily Beast in March.

In the lawsuit, said she and  her family began receiving calls and bribe offers from Minaj and her estate following the arrest of her husband, Kenneth Petty, in March 2020.

When Petty failed to register himself in the state of California, he was arrested, and Hough’s claims Minaj contacted her to recant her rape claim to help Petty.

Hough claims Minaj and Petty – who grew up in the same part of New York City as she did – had recruited several people close to her family in an intimidation campaign that’s forced her to move three times.

The suit says that an intermediary offered Hough $20,000 in exchange for signing a prepared statement recanting the accusation, with a bonus that Minaj would send birthday videos to her daughter.

Hough added that she received a call from her brother, with whom she said she was not particularly close, who said people had offered $500,000 if Jennifer agreed to speak with Petty’s lawyer.

Blackburn did not immediately reply to MailOnline’s request for comment, nor did representatives for Minaj and Petty.

Hough told the Times that she has never accepted a bribe and would not recant her story.

‘If I lie now and say that I lied then, you know what that does?’ she said. ‘Do you know what that’s going to say to my two little girls, or even my sons?’

Like Petty and Minaj, Jennifer grew up in the South Jamaica neighborhood in Queens, where she was raised by a woman who adopted her as an infant.

She said in court docs she was 16 when the alleged assault occurred after Petty approached her while she was walking to school on September 16, 1994.

Petty allegedly came up behind her, pressed an object into her back and told her to ‘keep walking’ as he led her to his home, according to court records obtained by The Blast.

Jennifer said the harassment began in March of last year – immediately after Petty (pictured) was arrested for failing to register as a sex offender

Minaj and Petty welcomed their son in September of last year

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Once they arrived, Petty forced her upstairs and began to rape her at knifepoint before she managed to escape after striking him with a bottle, the records state.

Jennifer immediately reported the incident and went to a hospital for examination. When she returned home she said her adoptive mother told her: ‘Sorry you got raped, but you should have screamed.’

Petty denied Jennifer’s allegations when he was arrested, telling investigators: ‘I didn’t do anything.’

His parents told Jennifer’s mother that the teens were dating, she said, even though she insists that they weren’t.

‘I think I kind of always just felt like people wanted me to be a liar,’ Jennifer told the Daily Beast in March.

She said that in the months after Petty’s arrest, his friends harassed her family relentlessly in an effort to get her to drop the charges.

At one point her adoptive aunt even brought her to court, she said, but she still refused to walk back her claims and ultimately moved to Florida before the case concluded.

Petty was ultimately convicted in 1995 on four counts: first-degree attempted rape in the first degree, second-degree assault, second-degree unlawful imprisonment and criminal possession of a weapon. He was sentenced to four years in prison and ordered to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life.

Minaj reportedly started dating Petty after he got out of prison, when he was 21 and she was just 16.

He landed back behind bars in 2006 after pleaded guilty to manslaughter in the shooting death of Lamont Robinson. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison and served seven before being released in 2013.

Minaj addressed Petty’s attempted rape conviction on her Apple Music show, Queen Radio, in 2019 after facing backlash over her announcement that they’d tied the knot.

‘When you’re somebody’s wife, you’ve gotta be even more prayed up,’ Minaj said on the show. ‘Because you’ve gotta cover your husband in prayer.’

The rapper insisted that Petty had been wrongfully convicted and claimed that the accuser had planned to write a letter to the judge recanting her statement before realizing that she could face jail time for admitting that she lied.