Podcaster Tim Dillon slams Naomi Osaka in profanity-laced rant
His rant comes more than two months after Osaka withdrew from the French Open to protect her mental health.
Comedian and podcaster Tim Dillon has taken aim at superstar athlete Naomi Osaka for citing mental health concerns as the reason why she’s taking a break from the media.
“That b*tch Naomi Osaka who didn’t wanna do the interviews, shut the f– up,” Dillon recently said on the Tim Dillon Show, as reported by Mediaite. “Do the f—- interviews you dumb b—.”
Dillon’s rant comes more than two months after Osaka withdrew from the French Open, she said, to protect her mental health. As reported by theGRIO’s Jared Alexander, the decision was a landmark one, sparking conversations surrounding women and women of color in sports, mental health, and more all over the world.
In Osaka’s initial post following her withdrawal from the French Open, she opened up about her battle with depression to her followers.
She shared at the time, “I never wanted to be a distraction and I accept that my timing was not ideal and my message could have been clearer…the truth is that I have suffered long bouts of depression since the US Open in 2018 and I have had a really hard time coping with that.”
Osaka continued, “I think now the best thing for the tournament, the other players and my well-being is that I withdraw so that everyone can get back to focusing on the tennis going on in Paris.”
After she withdrew from the French Open in May, Osaka then sat out Wimbledon.
The Japanese superstar defeated 52nd-ranked Zheng Saisai of China 6-1, 6-4 on July 25, in her first match in nearly two months.
“More than anything else I’m just focused on playing tennis,” Osaka said to reporters after her Olympic debut last month. “The Olympics has been a dream of mine since I was a kid so I feel like the break that I took was very needed. I feel definitely a little bit refreshed and I’m happy again.”
She added that she was “happy” that reporters were asking her questions, then noted: “I feel a little bit out of my body right now.”
Osaka ultimately exited the Olympics early, losing to Marketa Vondrousova of the Czech Republic 6-1, 6-4 in the third round without getting the chance to earn a gold medal for the host country, Japan. Osaka was born in Japan to a Haitian father and Japanese mother.
“How disappointed am I? I mean, I’m disappointed in every loss, but I feel like this one sucks more than the others,” she said to the media afterward.
Dillon’s comments about Osaka come days after he slammed Spotify for reportedly shelling out $60M for an exclusive deal with Call Her Daddy, a popular podcast hosted by Alex Cooper, as reported by Mediaite.
“60 million dollars. They’re not gonna make that money back,” Dillon said on his podcast with comedian Kunal C. Arora.
“They won’t make six million,” Arora replied.
“I think the podcast money is getting silly,” Dillon continued, noting that Joe Rogan inked a deal with Spotify allegedly worth more than $100M.
“Spotify likes Rogan, I don’t know if they’re in love with it,” he said before suggesting that the platform isn’t crazy about Bill Simmons‘ The Ringer podcast, per the report.
“They’re just giving people pretend money,” Dillon said.
This story contains additional reporting by The Associated Press.
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