What happened with Dwight Howard and Masin Elije? Incident revisited amid Stephen Harper lawsuit

Dwight Howard's sexuality is under scrutiny once again after a lawsuit was filed against him by a man named Stephen Harper. A bunch of alleged text messages between Harper and Howard was recently leaked, reminding fans of the claims made by Masin Elije in 2018.

Elije claimed he dated Howard before he found out that the former NBA player was sleeping with a transgender woman. He then claimed that Howard and his pastor threatened and harassed him online.

The author and entrepreneur also alleged that Howard wanted him to sign a non-disclosure agreement and accept hush money. Elije proceeded to file a lawsuit against Howard, who denied knowing him personally.

After Masin Elije's claims were made public, Dwight Howard came forward and denied the allegations. Howard appeared on Fair Game with Kristine Leahy on FS1 in 2019 to discuss the lawsuit. He even opened up about his sexuality and told Leahy that he was not gay.

"It ended up being a situation that was, it went viral," Howard said. "People were talking about it, and it upset me because I didn't even know who the person was.

"Why would somebody, who I never met, never had any contact with, make up a whole story about me? I saw all the hate, the pure hate, from people that I've never met before, just pile up everywhere I went."

He added:

"I'm not gay. It's a lot of people who are and they have to hide, and there's people who have mental issues and they have to hide. There's people who have different problems in life and they have to hide.

"They have to put on the mask every day, and it’s like, I don't wanna wear no mask, I just wanna be."

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Stephen Harper files lawsuit against Dwight Howard

Dwight Howard during his time with the LA Lakers

According to Radar Online, a man named Stephen Harper has filed a lawsuit against Dwight Howard. Harper has accused Howard of assault, battery, intentional infliction of emotional distress and false imprisonment. He has even provided evidence of alleged text exchanges between himself and Howard.

The incident reportedly happened on Jul. 19, 2021, in Howard's Atlanta mansion. Harper initiated contact with the three-time NBA Defensive Player of the Year on Instagram. The conversation became sexually charged, and Harper was invited to Howard's place.

However, Harper alleged that Howard forced him into having a three-way with a man dressed as a woman named "Kitty." Howard and "Kitty" did the act first before Howard pushed for Harper to join them.

Howard has not commented on the allegations and lawsuit as of this writing, but Masin Elije posted this on Twitter.