Jussie Smollett’s mother’s LA home was nearly broken into on Monday night, five years after the actor’s alleged cheating.
The 42-year-old Empire actor’s mother, Janet, had her home targeted by two intruders — who tried to break open a back door and caused $300 in damage to a window, per TMZ.
The suspects were unable to gain access to the home.
Sources revealed that Janet heard a noise and went outside to investigate, confronting the suspects who ran from the scene.
Smollett came to his mother’s side while police took a report of an attempted burglary and investigated.
Jussie Smollett’s mother’s LA home was almost broken into on Monday night – five years after the actor’s alleged cheating – photo 2016
The 42-year-old Empire actor’s mother, Janet, had her home targeted by two intruders – who tried to break open a back door and caused $300 in damage to a window, according to TMZ. Janet is pictured accompanying Smollett – straight-to court in 2021
DailyMail.com has contacted Smollett’s representatives for comment.
This comes days after Smollett broke his silence while appealing his case regarding the alleged 2019 hoax.
The actor, who maintains his innocence, opened up about the chaos and aftermath he faced in the five years after the incident.
He said he had to learn to “hold on for five more minutes,” a personal mantra he recites to himself during tough times.
When he was accused at the time of making false reports and staging a hate crime for media attention, he said he felt “numb” and “couldn’t understand what people were really thinking.”
At the time, he thought there was “no way” the public could believe a “stupid rumour”, the star – who completed a five-month stint in rehab earlier this year – said PEOPLE in an interview published Saturday.
Five years ago, Smollett was embroiled in headlines after saying on Jan. 29, 2019, that he was the victim of a hate crime.
He said he was attacked by two men late at night while on his way home from a Subway sandwich shop.
This comes days after Smollett broke his silence while appealing his case regarding the alleged 2019 hoax
He claimed his attackers shouted racist and homophobic slurs at him, wrapped a rope around his neck and doused him in bleach.
After law enforcement conducted an investigation, prosecutors alleged that Smollett orchestrated this to gain media attention and paid $3,500 to the two Osundairo brothers for the allegedly staged attack.
A jury trial took place and in December 2021, Smollett was found guilty of five misdemeanor counts of disorderly conduct for making false reports.
In March 2022, he was sentenced to 150 days in jail and ordered to pay a $25,000 fine, as well as restitution of more than $120,000 for overtime worked by the Chicago Police Department.
Six days after his sentence, the actor was released on bail pending his appeal, which is still ongoing.
“I was numb,” recalled the Empire star – who is currently on the road to promote his second feature film, The Lost Holliday.
The 42-year-old actor, who maintains his innocence, opened up about the chaos and aftermath he faced in the five years after the incident; pictured in May 2019 in Chicago
He said he had to learn to “hold on for five more minutes,” a personal mantra he recites to himself during tough times. When he was accused at the time of making false reports and staging a hate crime for media attention, he said he felt “numb” and “couldn’t understand what people were really thinking”; pictured on September 18 in Los Angeles
“I didn’t know how to connect the dots,” he continued. ‘I really, really didn’t know. I couldn’t understand what was going on, and I couldn’t understand what people were really thinking. What exactly do they think happened? I couldn’t put two and two together.’
Smollett said he thought there was “no way” the public could believe a “stupid rumor.”
“They were on a mission,” he said of the “haters” who created most of the noise.
‘I felt very disconnected from that. To this day I still can’t quite understand, “What the fuck was that?” But it was clearly painful. I’m certainly not going to sit here and try to pretend to the world that I’m doing okay.”
Since then, Smollett said he has done a lot of self-reflection and healing, which he said has been “difficult.”
“We’re still dealing with the fallout from that story. We still have to deal with that every day.’
Smollett also described the day he was arrested, February 21, 2019, as his “darkest day.” Now he said he wants to ‘move forward’, adding: ‘I have to’; pictured in March 2019 in Chicago
In March 2022, he was sentenced to 150 days in jail and ordered to pay a $25,000 fine as well as restitution of more than $120,000 for overtime worked by the Chicago Police Department; pictured in January 2019 in New York City
Smollett also described the day he was arrested, February 21, 2019, as his “darkest day.”
“That was a pretty dark day because that’s when everything that was happening dawned on me,” he recalls. “Many things have tested my strength, many things have tested my mental state, but the one thing I have never lost: I have never come to think of myself as someone I am not. That’s the only thing that didn’t happen.’
Now he said he wants to “move forward,” adding, “I have to.”
“I’m not going to sit here and victimize myself,” he continued, before saying that people often admit to crimes they didn’t commit because they feel it’s “the easier way out.”
“I am very aware of my privilege in this situation. That’s why there’s a certain point where I feel like I can’t hold the pain,” he said. “That’s why I’m blessed to be able to go on and make film and music and do the things that God put me here to do.”
Six days after his sentence, the actor was released on bail pending his appeal, which is still ongoing; pictured on August 31 in London
He said this perspective he now has “wasn’t always easy to look at that way,” because there were other times when he was “so angry and just so bitter about all of this.”
Smollett added that “the universe provides all things, and the universe shows the truth.”
‘You can fill it up, you can tie a block of cement to the truth, [but] the truth will always float to the top. It may take longer depending on what is holding it back, but the truth will always emerge.”
“I’ve moved on and I know that one day, and it may be a long time after I’m gone, who knows, but one day the world will sort this out. I just can’t wait for that to happen because I have a life to live,” he concluded. “But the world is going to solve it all.”