Tyler Perry Fighting Male Sex Assault Accuser Over Private Texts

Published October 29, 2026 1:00 AM PDT

Tyler Perry is fighting his sexual assault accuser, Mario Rodriguez, in court over his private texts ... TMZ has learned.

According to court docs, obtained by TMZ, Tyler says he turned over private texts with associates to Mario as part of their legal battle. The director said he wanted those messages to remain confidential, like they previously agreed.

He said the messages should be private because some of the convos talk about financial matters.

Tyler says he and the associates he was texting believed their conversations were private … and Mario has no right to release them. He says his associates have nothing to do with the case at hand and disclosure of their texts would cause unnecessary annoyance and embarrassment.

Mario has yet to respond to the issue in his own court docs.

As TMZ first reported, Mario sued Tyler for $77 million over an alleged sexual assault. He said he met the director in 2015 at the gym … which led to him getting a role in Tyler's film, "Boo! A Madea Halloween."

In his lawsuit, Mario claimed Tyler assaulted him when he went to visit him at his home in 2018. Mario claims Tyler asked him if he liked oral sex and then grabbed his junk. He said Tyler gave him $5k and apologized.

The suit alleged Tyler also forced his hand on Mario's penis during another hangout … which led to another alleged $5k payment.

Tyler and his company denied all allegations of wrongdoing in the case. He claimed Mario kept talking to him after the alleged incidents occurred… and only turned on him when he stopped providing him with financial assistance.

As TMZ first reported, Tyler previously fought Mario in court over whether he has to answer questions about his sexuality at his deposition.

At the time, Tyler's powerhouse lawyer Alex Spiro told TMZ the whole legal battle amounted to a "shakedown."