Naomi Osaka cried during the first press conference she has sat for since she took a mental health hiatus several months ago.
The press conference came months after Osaka was fined for refusing to do media activities during the French Open. She accepted the $15,000 levy and eventually pulled out of the rest of the competition.
After the dust-up, she took a mental health hiatus and continued to pursue other ventures. She even competed with Team Japan in the Tokyo Olympics.
On Monday, she sat with the media to answer questions before the start of the Western & Southern Open tournament and things did not go well.
TMZ reported that Osaka cried when a reporter asked “a fairly aggressively toned question about how she benefits from a high-media profile but doesn’t like talking to media.”
However, the rest of his question was how she balanced having outside interests that are enhanced because of the media.
Naomi Osaka bursts into tears and exits podium while addressing how she has felt since withdrawing from French Open. pic.twitter.com/xBn8XRF8FB
— The Shadow League (@ShadowLeague) August 16, 2021
After asking for clarification and answering the question the best she could, saying that she felt she had done what needed to be done. At that point, Osaka cried, pulled her cap over her face and stepped away for a minute before returning to finish the press conference.
Her agent, Stuart Duguid, blasted the Cincinnati Enquirer reporter, Paul Daugherty, for his tone with the tennis superstar and said that the reporter was one of the reasons sports professionals do not like interacting with the media.
He also called the reporter a bully.
This is not the first time white media has tried to bully Black female athletes. Racist bully Piers Morgan and Megyn Kelly previously criticized Naomi Osaka over her press hiatus and Simone Biles and swimmer Simone Manuel have also been the targets of Morgan’s errant trout mouth.
