You have to be living under a rock to not know that Shannon Sharpe is receiving a lot of public scrutiny for his relationship with a woman who was 19 in 2023, when he was 54. For those who aren’t good at quick math, that’s a 35-year age difference, meaning Sharpe was definitely old enough to be her grandfather. Sharpe is the father of three children, all in their 30s and born in the last millennium, unlike his accuser.
The woman alleges that during their relationship Sharpe raped her on two occasions, the most recent being January 2, 2024, and that their relationship started when they met at the gym and he repeatedly asked her out.
Sharpe’s lawyers fired back with a series of text messages that they used as evidence that their interaction was a consensual BDSM relationship, which can blur some lines. This situation is also interesting because even if she is lying—which is not the argument here—because people rape other people with whom they’ve already had consensual sex with, but it is the power dynamics, with race, age and wealth.
Sharpe is a multi-millionaire in his mid-50s, who, up until this week, was looking at a $100 million deal.
As this story hit the internet, more clips have surfaced, including a podcast episode with Chad Ochocinco, in which Sharpe basically states that everyone is frequently talking about dating their age, but he wants to “date his wage,” which neither seems to be the case in his situation.
.@ShannonSharpe, Shannon Sharpe suffers a mental breakdown in an interview, crashes out saying he wants to date his “wage” after being accused of being a pedophile.pic.twitter.com/8eIMC63A1E
— EM (@EXECUTIVEXMEDIA) April 25, 2025
Sharpe and his lawyers have yet to release information on what a 54-year-old Black man and a 19-year-old white woman would have in common, other than his money and her vagina. Still, it seems their odd pairing lasted about two years, even when Sharpe ‘accidentally’ went live on Instagram while he was having sex with a woman named “Michelle,” who is not the woman who is suing him. But maybe that is just what it was. To add insult to injury, there are text messages from the plaintiff, stating that she wanted Sharpe’s “big black baby” (she didn’t even capitalize the b, smh).
While some of their conversations were indeed about bondage, she does seem to push back on some of their interaction, which again, will make a hard sell for Sharpe.
Here is the thing: by your mid-50s, you would hope to be more actualized and aware (I don’t know, I’m assuming because I’ve never been there, but do hope to go). While Sharpe’s lawyers are painting the plaintiff, who is represented by Tony Buzbee, the same lawyer in many of the lawsuits against Diddy, as a golddigger, how was a millionaire in his 50s not aware that dating a 19-year-old white woman was much more accessible to him, simply because he had money?
— shannon sharpe (@ShannonSharpe) April 22, 2025
Why is there always anger from men who date women, whom they could only get because they have money, and are shocked that the women only want them for such?
At the end of the day, Sharpe is his own biggest problem.
He is somewhere trying to prove to himself that he’s still got it, even after all the money he is still making—all those Super Bowl rings and no wedding ring. He should be somewhere taking Instagram tutorials so that he doesn’t ‘accidentally’ press several buttons and end up streaming himself grunting. He could have a well-traveled, educated woman with her own means, but it seems that dating women who have no personal reference to 9/11, when he was born before the first moon landing, makes more sense to him.
May-December age gaps can absolutely exist in a healthy, balanced manner. However, that is not always the case, due to an imbalance of resources and power, especially when the man is older. It does not seem that Sharpe had a healthy interaction with her. Sharpe really took a successful second stage of his career and threw it in the trash, all because he wanted some taboo p*ssy. One of Shannon’s texts to the alleged victim states, “big black guy chokes small white woman.”
Acting out big buck fantasies knowing that you have millions of dollars in the bank is, ironically, the most slave sh*t ever.
