Singer Marques Houston, 41, is under fire for saying women his age often come with “baggage” and “kids”, as he addresses his 19-year age gap with his wife.

• Marques Houston said he married a younger woman because women his age often come with “baggage.”

• The “Clubbin'” singer and former “Sister, Sister” actor, 41, is married to Miya Dickey, 22.

• “Single mothers with children are a wake-up call,” he said.

Singer and former “Sister, Sister” actor Marques Houston said he married a younger woman because women his age often have “baggage.”

The “Clubbin'” singer, 41, is married to Miya Dickey, 22. They started dating when she was 18 and married in 2020, when she was 19. A year later, they welcomed their first child.

Houston has previously denied rumors that he knew Dickey before he turned 18.

Addressing her relationship with Dickey in an interview with Page Six, published Tuesday, Houston said: “I’m 41, she’s 22. I could have married a 44-year-old woman, and it could have been disastrous.”

“I’ve dated a lot of women my age, they may have baggage,” he added. “They may have children, they may not. There are so many different women I’ve been with throughout my life, and this one just happened to catch my heart.”

Houston, who gained musical fame in the 1990s as a member of the R&B group Immature, also said that “single mothers with children are a red flag.”

“I talked to my dad a lot and he was always telling me to have my own kids because you never know what baby daddies are talking about,” he explained. “So if you want to have kids, make sure it’s with a woman who’s never had kids. So that’s always been my wake-up call…and a woman with an attitude. I don’t Don’t like women with funky attitudes.”

Former member of Houston’s Immature group Young Rome released a statement on Instagram on Wednesday criticizing Houston’s comments.

“As a member of Immature, I would like to sincerely apologize for the insensitive statements made by my former bandmate Marques Houston,” he wrote.

“We were raised by a tribe of strong, independent women who faced challenges we will never fully understand. Women today have enough battles to endure, including control of their bodies, ‘equal pay in the workplace and beauty standards.’

Rome added that it is “never acceptable to degrade one group of women to praise another.”

“We would be nothing without the loyal fans who have supported us for three decades, some of whom are now hard-working single mothers,” he said. “As artists, it has always been important to us that the content of our music and those we represent as men never disrespect women (especially women of color) and that its opinions do not do not reflect those of the group.”

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