Tyler Perry is asking a court to keep his private text messages with friends confidential in his legal battle with Mario Rodriguez, per TMZ.
By The Insider — CelebnMusic247
The newest fight in Tyler Perry‘s court case is not about what happened years ago — it is about who gets to read his phone. According to court documents obtained by TMZ, Perry says he turned over private text messages with associates to Mario Rodriguez as part of their legal battle, and he wants those messages to remain confidential, as he says the two sides previously agreed.
Perry’s argument, per TMZ, is that the conversations should stay private because some of them discuss financial matters, and because he and the associates he was texting believed their conversations were private. He says the associates have nothing to do with the case at hand, and that releasing their texts would cause unnecessary annoyance and embarrassment. Rodriguez had not yet responded to the issue in his own court filings when TMZ published its report on October 29.
The confidentiality dispute sits on top of a much larger lawsuit. As TMZ first reported, Rodriguez sued Perry for $77 million over an alleged sexual assault. Rodriguez says he met the director in 2015 at a gym, which led to a role in Perry’s film Boo! A Madea Halloween, per TMZ. In the lawsuit, Rodriguez claims Perry assaulted him during a 2018 visit to Perry’s home, and alleges a second incident during another hangout, with $5,000 payments allegedly made after each, per TMZ’s reporting of the suit. Those are Rodriguez’s allegations as described in his filing; they have not been proven in court.
Perry’s side has denied everything from the start. Perry and his company have denied all allegations of wrongdoing, per TMZ, and he has claimed Rodriguez kept talking to him after the alleged incidents and only turned on him when Perry stopped providing financial assistance. Perry’s lawyer Alex Spiro previously told TMZ the legal battle amounted to a “shakedown.” The two sides have also already fought in court this year over whether Perry has to answer questions about his sexuality at his deposition, per TMZ.
That history is why a fight over text messages matters more than it might look. In a case where one side’s account leans heavily on private communications, what stays sealed and what becomes public can shape everything that follows — and Perry is arguing that messages involving third parties who are not part of the case should not become collateral. Rodriguez’s response, when it is filed, will tell readers how hard his side intends to push in the other direction.
Nothing in the underlying lawsuit has been decided, and both men’s claims remain exactly that — claims, made in court documents and statements, awaiting a courtroom. What Thursday’s filing establishes is narrower and real: the case has entered the evidence fight, and it is being contested line by line.
The 247 Take — Big cases are often won in the small print, and Perry knows it: he is not just defending against an accusation, he is defending the boundary around every private conversation he has ever had. Rodriguez’s team will call that secrecy; Perry’s will call it a shakedown. A judge gets to call it first.
Sources: TMZ
