The husband of renowned author Lindy West has launched a passionate tirade against a journalist, labeling them as a ‘bitter, untalented, mean-girl’ following their review of West’s latest book.
In her recently released memoir, “Adult Braces,” which hit the shelves earlier this month, the 44-year-old West reveals startling details about her experiences in a polyamorous relationship.
Within the memoir, West candidly shares how she found herself reluctantly involved in a throuple with her husband, Ahamefule J. Oluo, and his partner, Roya Amirsoleymani.
After the memoir’s release, Scaachi Koul, a writer for Slate, published an in-depth profile and interview featuring West.
In response, Oluo has publicly criticized Koul, accusing her of ‘deliberately distorting the story to suit her own negative narrative’ and ‘intentionally undermining his identity and career.’
Koul published an explosive email that Oluo, 43, sent her after the article came out.
‘This was such a s**ty thing to do, Scaachi. You intentionally skewed this story to fit your own bitter narrative, you wasted my time and all of our time to write an article that was gonna be the same no matter what we said,’ he wrote.
‘You absolutely dehumanized me and intentionally diminished my personhood and career.’
The husband of famous author Lindy West has unleased a furious tirade against a reporter after they wrote a review of West’s new tome
In 2019, Oluo started secretly seeing Roya Amirsoleymani (seen), with whom the couple are now involved as a throuple
Oluo went on to slam Koul for claiming that he and Amirsoleymani were ‘away, working in Boston on a shared project’ at the time of her interview with West.
‘Roya and I were on a “shared project” in Boston? Or however you worded it? I was performing four shows at the Paramount, and Roya is my producer,’ he scathed.
‘I am a person with a life and a great career and a complicated life and you boiled me down to a “cheater” who was on a school project making a diorama or some s**t because you are mad about your life.
‘You barely wrote about the book, you just wrote a rage bait article specifically designed to direct hate toward me.’
‘You are a s***ty f**king person, you’re a bitter, untalented, mean-girl and you should be absolutely ashamed of yourself. You f**king suck,’ he concluded.
West also reached out to Koul to share her displeasure with the article.
‘I feel hurt by this piece. It feels subtly designed to generate exactly the kind of backlash against Ahamefule and, by extension, me,’ she wrote, in part.
‘It’s hard to weather backlash that’s about someone else, especially when I tried so hard in my book to convey who we are and the complexities of what really happened. Perhaps I failed.’
The couple now share their Washington state home with Amirsoleymani
Oluo is seen here with his girlfriend Amirsoleymani. His wife claimed in her new memoir that he implied it would be racist to refuse his request for an open marriage
The Daily Mail reached out to a representative for the family, who declined to comment.
West, a comedian and women’s rights activist, was skyrocketed into the spotlight following the release of her first book, Shrill: Notes from a Loud Woman, came out in 2016.
The essay collection detailed her marriage to Oluo but did not mention his desire for an open marriage. The book went on to inspire a Hulu series which aired from 2019 to 2021.
She went on to release three more tomes and launch a successful podcast over the years.
West and Oluo first started dating in 2011 and briefly split later that year but ultimately ended up getting back together. They wed in July 2015.
In her latest book, West admitted that she was resistant to the idea of opening her marriage but that it was becoming fashionable in her liberal circle.
She explained: ‘I’m not politically conservative, but I am reserved. I like tradition, rituals, patterns, feeling like a stitch in a great weave of grandparents and great-grandparents, pairs loving each other in the same format again and again.
‘At the time, being cool about polyamory felt like a growing imperative in progressive circles. It made me defensive, particularly coming from thin people.’
West claimed in the tome that Oluo suggested turning down his request for an open marriage was rooted in colonialism.
‘He believed that monogamy was, at its root, a system of ownership. I had to admit that perhaps I didn’t feel it as keenly, as a white person,’ she wrote.
‘I stood at this crossroads: spend the rest of my life without Aham (impossible), or agree to a polyamorous relationship (also impossible).’
According to West, Oluo made it clear polyamory was ‘a fundamental part of his ethos’ so the two came to an understanding that they would open their marriage, but that Oluo would only date strangers.
However, the agreement was allegedly broken while Oluo was touring on the road after he reportedly began seeing someone known to the couple.
‘She lived in our neighborhood. She was tall and thin and blonde and fun and wild and she knew people that we knew,’ West wrote. ‘She was the exact woman your husband leaves you for when you look like me.’
According to West, ‘a lot of bad stuff happened during the months they were entangled’ and described them as ‘the worst months of her life.’
Oluo (seen with West in 2020) has now lashed out at a Slate reporter, accusing her of ‘intentionally skewing the story to fit her own bitter narrative’
But the blonde woman was not Oluo’s only supposed dalliance. In 2019, Oluo secretly started seeing Amirsoleymani who he is still with today, along with his wife.
West described how she was initially left reeling over the relationship, but has since come to terms with it and describes how all three live together in their Washington state home as a throuple.
The trio publicly announced that they were in a throuple in 2022 through an explosive YouTube video.
Despite her admissions, the book ended with the three now all under one roof in a picture of domestic bliss.
West said: ‘Some people say that I’m delusional, that I couldn’t possibly be happy with two partners.
‘They lose their minds when confronted with the idea of nonmonogamy, and I am sympathetic. I used to share their lost mind.
‘I don’t know how a three-person marriage works! It just does! This wasn’t my plan.’
The Slate profile on West recapped the events in the tome as well as the public scrutiny the throuple faced following their announcement in 2022.
Koul wrote how in West’s new book, Oluo ‘appears dishonest, and the boundaries are muddied’ as she described his ‘ostensible cheating.’
During her interview with the outlet, West was open about the fact that she knew many of her fans weren’t too fond of her husband.
‘It was a hard tightrope because every time I wrote something nice about Aham, I felt like I was falling into that apologia trap, where I’m trying to justify something,’ she said.
‘Maybe I’m not a good enough writer, but I don’t know how to explain how and why I love a person.’
