14 DAY TRIAL // Hank Baskett hasn’t said a peep so far in the scandal that nearly cost him his marriage, but that doesn’t mean that he’s sitting with his arms crossed, not doing anything about it. While wife Kendra Wilkinson is doing interview after interview, speaking against transgender model Ava London, who claims to have had a tryst with Baskett, he’s taking the entire situation to the authorities.
Reports indicate that he’s alerted the FBI, saying London blackmailed him with illegally obtained recordings of their phone conversations.
He’s also hired attorneys to try and obtain in court all the recordings London still has and hasn’t made public yet, which, according to her, amount to almost an hour of talk time.
The affair that put Hank in the dog house
Earlier this year, news transpired that, some months earlier, Hank Baskett had sought out London, a famous transgender model, after seeing her videos on YouTube. He wanted to get intimate with her and even to embark on a fully-fledged romance, she later told the media.
They had just one encounter, during which they pleased each other by hand but did not have intercourse. Afterwards, she claims, he paid her a sum of money and then called her up to promise her even more if she just kept her mouth shut. Apparently, he’d found out that one of the tabloids would be running a story of their tryst.
As it happens, all this was taking place when Kendra was pregnant with her and Hank’s second child, and news of it got out in the press shortly after she gave birth. Hank was kicked out of the house, and as far as the public knows, Kendra is yet to forgive him for the betrayal.
The drama is documented on season 3 of Kendra on Top, the couple’s reality show.
London, truth-teller or fraud?
Kendra has said on previous occasions that she didn’t believe London, and later on, after she released recordings to back up her story, that she was nothing short of a blackmailer who was only out for money and fame, which she hoped to accomplish by targeting a couple of celebrities.
Just last week, for instance, as you can see in the video below, she got very angry when speaking to E! about the claims London has been making, saying that she should be thrown behind bars.
She also expressed her belief that, as a celebrity, you pretty much have a huge target on your forehead, attracting people like her, who wouldn’t hesitate to scoop to their lowest, if it means making a quick buck.
London, on the other hand, is saying that she’s only speaking out on the affair and releasing phone recordings of her chats with Hank (on which he’s heard desperately begging her not to reveal the details of their encounter to the press) because she wants to show the world that she’s not the villain. Hank is, and Kendra should see that and ditch him to the curb for good.
Authorities are now involved, will settle this
Because this is a clear case of he said – she said, with a hefty side of possibly manufactured drama (there are several conspiracy theories saying the scandal is PR-made to boost interest in Kendra’s show), the investigation launched now will probably settle this, one way or another.
TMZ reports that Hank went to the FBI with the story, saying London “illegally recorded and extorted him,” and when he failed to pay, she ran to the media with her lies. Hank says he never had any kind of contact with London, let alone seek her out online: they met in a grocery store and she and her friend invited him back to their place.
They smoked weed, “which somehow led to Ava taking her clothes off.” This is when Hank got up and left, when he saw that she still had her male organ.
Baskett has also hired attorneys to obtain the rest of the illegally made recordings, in court, if need be. He claims London wanted $5,000 (€3,940) for the lot.