Taraji P. Henson is revisiting the scandal that overshadowed Empire’s final stretch, reflecting on how co-star Jussie Smollett’s legal storm affected the Fox juggernaut’s tight-knit cast. Speaking with Vulture in a newly published feature timed to her Broadway debut, the Oscar-nominated actress said the furor landed like “a punch to family” and underscored the show’s abrupt turn from ratings phenomenon to tabloid fixture.
“It hurt because it was family,” Henson explained, recalling the 2019 headlines. “And then to have people drag somebody who says, ‘I’m trying to tell you my truth and you’re telling me I’m lying’? That’s not a good place to be.”
She added that Smollett “is good” today and insisted she has no desire to dredge up old wounds.
Henson’s stance marks her latest public defense of the actor who played her on-screen son, Jamal Lyon. In March 2022, after a Chicago judge handed Smollett 150 days in county jail for filing a false police report, Henson joined supporters calling the sentence excessive, writing on Instagram that “the punishment does not fit the crime” and invoking the historic Emmett Till case to highlight disparities in justice.
Smollett’s legal odyssey has been one of television’s most scrutinized post-script dramas. Chicago police alleged the actor staged a racist and homophobic attack on himself in January 2019, leading to an initial 16-count indictment that prosecutors later dropped.
A special prosecutor revived the charges, and a 2021 jury convicted Smollett on five counts of disorderly conduct. He received probation, jail time, and more than $120,000 in fines before the Illinois Supreme Court overturned the conviction in November 2024 on due-process grounds.
Smollett settled a related civil suit with the city in 2025 and continues to deny staging the attack.
