Frank Ocean Sued By His Father Again
Over the summer, in the wake of the Orlando nightclub shooting, Frank Ocean posted a lengthy personal note on Tumblr, which included an anecdote about his father using a homophobic slur. “I was six years old when I heard my dad call our transgender waitress a faggot as he dragged me out a neighborhood diner saying we wouldn’t be served because she was dirty,” he wrote. “That was the last afternoon I saw my father and the first time I heard that word, I think, although it wouldn’t shock me if it wasn’t.”
Ocean’s estranged father, Calvin Cooksey, immediately denied the whole thing and demanded millions of dollars from Ocean in damages. And now, as TMZ reports, Cooksey has officially filed a defamation lawsuit against his son, claiming that the story has “damaged his financial opportunities in film and music.” He’s seeking $14.5 million in damages.
This isn’t the first time that Ocean’s dad has shown his litigious side, either. In 2014, Cooksey sued Russell Simmons and his website Global Grind for posting an article portaying him as a deadbeat dad. And in 2012, as BET reports, he threatened to sue his son for $1 million. “Father wanna sue me for a million. Like I owe him back child support,” Ocean wrote in a tweet at the time. “Weak individual bought me a swiss knife at 6yrs old then dipped on me.”