Tyler Perry is fighting back against his male sexual assault accuser, claiming the man proposed a multi-million dollar settlement and is now trying to bully him into paying up. In new legal docs obtained, the film mogul’s legal team fired back at Mario Rodriguez, who sued Perry for $77 million in November 2025, alleging sexual assault. Rodriguez had also filed a motion asking the court to sanction Perry for not appearing at a deposition, claiming he planned to ask Perry about his sexual orientation.
Perry’s filing scoffs at Rodriguez’s claims, insisting he already agreed to sit for the deposition and is not embarrassed to answer questions about his orientation. Perry argues that Rodriguez holds a “backwards belief” that he should be ashamed, adding that the motion was filed after he rejected a multi-million dollar settlement proposal. “He turned around and filed the motion about the deposition to harm my reputation,” Perry claims, calling the legal maneuvering an effort to “bully” him into a settlement.
Perry also argues that questions about his sexual orientation are irrelevant to the case, calling Rodriguez’s approach a “bigoted stereotype”, the idea that a man attracted to men is more likely to have assaulted another man. He is now asking the court to sanction Rodriguez for $7,300 for abusing the discovery process. Rodriguez’s lawsuit alleges Perry sexually assaulted him multiple times between 2015 and 2017, claims Perry has denied. His team has pointed out that Rodriguez continued communicating with Perry for years after the alleged incidents.
