Jefferson Explains Why Engagement Ended Without Strong Finish

A day after news broke that former New Jersey Net Richard Jefferson left his bride-to-be at the altar in the eleventh hour, the one-time Olympian is hitting the press to clarify just what went down. He tells the Post that he gave former Nets' dancer Kesha Ni'Cole Nichols a full week's notice that the wedding was off after a contentious Fourth of July weekend in LA where they were at each other's throats. The engagement had already seen its fair share of disappointment—the pair had tickets to see Michael Jackson perform in London for their honeymoon.

Jefferson says that the two came to an "agreement" before Nichols got on a plane to New York to prepare for the wedding set to take place at Mandarin Oriental in Columbus Circle. But in case she needed clarification, he emailed her once she left to finalize that things were off. He said, "Sometimes you might write an e-mail to get your thoughts down right."

Jefferson was apparently so upset about the way the story broke that not only did he talk to the Post, today he went on the radio shows of both Dan Patrick and Howard Stern to clear the air. Jefferson described the tumultuous five-year relationship between the two that already included one broken engagement and revealed how he gave Nichols a six-figure settlement so that she could start a new life. Jefferson would not agree with Stern's assessment that he was a hero, but did say, "There’s a lot of people that wouldn’t have the balls to do something like this.”

One ball Jefferson doesn't want to leave up in the air is any speculation that the engagement was called off because he is gay. RJ gave an adamant "no homo" to the Post saying, "I'm not gay. That couldn't be any further from the truth. I have nothing to hide." The small forward told Dan Patrick that "you can't fight the internet" when it comes to these kinds of stories because as he put it, "They start spreading rumors and it starts snow-balling."

Jefferson went on to say how his family of Christian missionaries were extremely disappointed—in the cancellation. He says that he's the last of his family to get married. He added, "I'm upset. I lost my best friend."