(Photo: Prince William/Stacey Wescott/Chicago Tribune/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
The Osundairo Brothers made headlines after Jussie Smollett was accused of staging an attack on himself to gain public sympathy. Now, the brothers are speaking out about their role in the hoax.
In a new Fox Nation documentary, Bola and Ola Osundairo reenact the allegedly staged attack and detail their part in Jussie’s legal troubles. They also said they feel “betrayed” by the actor, who allegedly hired the two for $3,500.
In December 2021, the now-40-year-old actor and singer was convicted of five felony counts of disorderly conduct. One year ago, he was sentenced in March 2022 to 150 days in county jail.
Bola recounted the scheme in the five-part series, claiming they were still owed money on the same day they were suppose to leave for Nigeria to audition for a popular TV series at the time.
“A friend of mine had sent me a screenshot of the front page of, I believe a TMZ article, that showed that Jussie had been attacked. I ran to my brother and was like, ‘Yo, mission accomplished. We did it,’” Bola recalled. “Now we’ve secured the payment of our $500 that he owes us because he only wrote us a check of [sic] $3,500, and that was the day we were supposed to leave for Nigeria.”
“Things were on the up and up for us. Things were looking pretty good,” Ola added.
Meanwhile, Smollett was telling the press that “White supremacists” – in actuality the brothers in disguise – threw chemicals on him before placing a noose around his neck as they yelled racist and homophobic slurs and telling him he was in “MAGA country.”
However, the identity behind the men in masks slowly began to slowly be revealed.
“You know Eddie Johnson [former Chicago Police Superintendent] said he could tell in the footage that you guys are Black, right?” an off-camera interviewer asked the brothers. “Really?” Ola asked. “I feel like he’s just saying that… we were in character the whole time.”
The interviewer once again asked them: “So you think you guys are believable White supremacists?”
“One hundred percent! Look at me,” Bola said with a laugh.
In the meantime, Chicago Police had released images of the incident days after it reportedly took place, however Johnson said the first set of pictures showing two silhouettes walking shoulder-to-shoulder was not the best image they had at the time, and led to few if any leads.
The other image showed one brother wearing a red hat, the same color of the infamous MAGA hats. However, Bola said he :didn’t want people to focus on that.”
“I didn’t want people to focus on that,” Bola said upon reflecting, later explaining that Black and LGBTQ+ communities would have been outraged. “Sometimes, once the toothpaste gets out of the tube, you can get it back in there.”
But many did focus on the red caps, with the incident occurring amidst widespread race issues propagated in the name of the Trump administration.
