Tyga Admits He Contacted 14-Year-Old Girl, but Only Because He Liked Her Music

A 14-year-old Instagram model has alleged the rapper Tyga—best known for dating Kylie Jenner—contacted her on Instagram. In a statement sent by her attorney, the famed women's rights advocate Gloria Allred, the teenager said, "The truth is that Tyga contacted me first. He direct messaged me on Instagram. I knew who he was but I was surprised that he was contacting me.

"I thought that it could possibly be about my music, but he did not mention that in his initial communication with me," she continued. Based on this communication, OK! magazine published a cover story alleging the model and Tyga had a relationship. The teenager's mother has accused the tabloid of insinuating an "inappropriate sexually suggestive relationship" between the rapper and Instagram model.

The model denies she contacted the tabloid. Today, Tyga's manager Anthony Martin told TMZ Tyga had messaged, but only because the rapper loved the teenager's singing voice. In text messages published by TMZ, Tyga told her, "Send me some music tho." He also asked her, "[sic] How old r u?" According to the text messages, the teenager told him she was "only 17." Tyga responded, "Whoa." He then continued to text her.

California state sets the age of consent at 18, and as the Daily Beast reported, the model was actually 14. Last year, at age 25, Tyga began dating a 17-year-old Kylie Jenner. They had met a few years earlier when the rapper performed at Kylie's sister Kendall's Sweet 16. At the time, Kylie was 14 and Tyga was 22.

OK! has portrayed Tyga's text message relationship as a disruption in his love affair with Kylie. At a press conference yesterday, the 14-year-old model disputed the tabloid's claims; today, Tyga's manager echoed Allred's denial of any relationship in his statements to TMZ, though he added that the conversation never got "uncomfortable." A spokesperson for OK!'s parent company, American Media Inc., said, "OK! stands by our reporting and the hard work and journalistic integrity of our editors." In yesterday's press conference, Allred discussed why celebrity journalists need to keep innocent teenagers out of stories about alleged sex scandals and requested an apology. "We also believe that it was wrong for OK! magazine to involve a young girl in what is portrayed as a celebrity sex scandal. Perhaps OK! did this to increase the sales of their magazine…but doing so was wrong and OK! magazine should apologize to both Anne and her daughter Molly." The model also criticized OK! for using a pixelated photo of her face, saying that people could still recognize her.

"As a result of the story and the photo, I have received a lot of negative attention not only from people in my own state but also from all over the place," the model said in her statement. "It is also upsetting to me that OK! magazine never even contacted my mom or me to check the facts to see if what they were publishing was true. I am speaking out today because I don't want what happened to me to happen to any other young girl."

As the 14-year-old model said, "It's crazy how so much can come out of nothing."

UPDATE: This article has been updated to include American Media Inc.'s spokesperson's statement, which Broadly received after publication.