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“Of course, there’s some doubt. I’m telling you that because I love him so much,” Daniels said. “That’s the torture that I’m in right now, because it’s literally, if it were to happen to your son and your child, how would you feel? You would feel, 'Please, God, please let there be that glimmer of hope that there is some truth in this story.' That’s why it’s been so painful. It was a flood of pain.”

Daniels acknowledged that the scandal forced him to stop communicating with Smollett.

\"I had to detach myself and stop calling him,\" he said, \"because it was taking away the time I have for my kids, the time I have for my partner.”

View this post on Instagram

Come on now 🔥

A post shared by Lee Daniels (@theoriginalbigdaddy) on Apr 30, 2019 at 3:23pm PDT

Fox recently announced that the upcoming sixth season of Empire would be its last. Daniels tweeted earlier this month that \"Jussie will NOT be returning\" to the show.

Daniels said he hopes to continue the story of the Lyon family in another series.

“We’re trying something out, and if it works, then 'Empire' is over and we have a great spin-off,” he said.

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