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5o Cent opens up about his house fire

The rapper won’t reveal whether his ex, Shaniqua Tompkins, lit the fire

Image: 50 Cent
Dan Steinberg / AP file
50 Cent says that before his house mysteriously went up in flames, his ex-girlfriend was ordered to leave.
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Access Hollywood
updated 6:24 p.m. ET Dec. 15, 2008

50 Cent is finally opening up about the fire that destroyed his multimillion-dollar Long Island home in May.

In a new interview with TV One Access correspondent Quddus, 50 Cent said his ex-girlfriend, Shaniqua Tompkins, was ordered to leave his Long Island home just days before the blaze broke out.

“The courts told her she had to leave,” the rapper said of Tompkins. “It’s kind of more like, ‘If I can’t have you, you can’t have it.’”

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“So, you figure she lit it up?” Quddus asked, referring to the house catching fire.

“Well, I don’t want to say that… don’t try to make me say something I don’t want to say,” 50 Cent replied. “But the circumstances to it might seem that way.”

As previously reported on AccessHollywood.com, six people, including Tompkins and 50’s 10-year-old son, Marquis, were taken to a hospital after suffering smoke inhalation following the fire and later released.

Earlier this year, Tompkins filed a lawsuit against 50 Cent claiming he had promised her a house more than a decade ago.

Just days before the fire, Tompkins’ lawyer, Paul Catsandonis, told the Associated Press that the legal fight for the house had become “extremely, extremely contentious.” Catsandonis said there was an “extremely dangerous incident” on the Monday before the fire in his Manhattan office while taking a deposition for the lawsuit.

The dispute was “involving the parties in question,” he said.

He also contended the rapper signed an agreement that would give Tompkins half of all his earnings as a hip-hop superstar.

“Everything that’s his is hers, everything that’s hers is his. He memorialized in an e-mail that he intended to give her the house,” Catsandonis told the AP.

Quddus asked 50 Cent if the investigation was still pending.

“I guess so,” the rapper replied.

Get the entire, in-depth story with 50 Cent on Sunday, Jan. 4. And catch TV One Access every week on Sunday night at 7 p.m.

Copyright 2009 by NBC. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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