Contributed by Taylor Ardrey
On February 13, Steve Harvey and fellow comedian and long time friend, Mo’Nique, had a heated discussion on the Steve Show about her career and how she got blackballed from the industry with a lack of support from her peers.
Mo’Nique has recently been in the spotlight following her Netflix boycott earlier last year. She has also been called out by Hollywood frontrunners like Lee Daniels for her “diva” and “demanding” behavior and received backlash for refusing to campaign for her role in Precious in which she received an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress.
Harvey immediately asked Mo’Nique, why has she been labeled as “difficult” in the industry and what steps she will take to change that narrative.
“I said one word, and that was ‘no,’ Mo’Nique explained. “I said no to some powerful people — I said no to Oprah Winfrey, I said no Tyler Perry, I said no to Lee Daniels and I said no to Lionsgate. The difficulty came when people that look like me, like Oprah, Tyler, Lee Daniels — and I gotta put my brother Steve [Harvey] on the list — y’all knew I was not wrong. Each one of you said to me, ‘Mo’Nique you’re not wrong.'”
Mo’Nique expressed her disappointment in Harvey after she heard him say on- air that “my sister burnt too many bridges, and there’s nothing I can do for her now.”
Harvey followed up, “I thought you went about it wrong. See, I felt that you had done yourself a disservice by the way you chose to go about it.[…] I was cool with your deal with Netflix. I was cool with you. The two problems that we had, number one, the boycott of Netflix- we never gave people a point of action. Okay if we’re gonna boycott, are we gonna not get subscriptions, are we gonna turn it off, are we gonna go down there and get signs?” Harvey continues, “The second point that was coming from me was, this problem you had with Netflix is rich people problems. Because they’re looking at us going, you talking about you didn’t get millions, but you got this you oughta be cool.”
Watch Part 1 of the interview here: Mo’Nique and Steve Get Real: Part 1
Following the emotional discussion, Harvey is retracting on his choice of words during the debate.
“I’ve got to slow down when I’m talking,” Harvey told PEOPLE, “I can’t get into heated discussions, and I’ve got to just guard my words more carefully.”
Watch Part 2 of the interview here: Mo’Nique and Steve Get Real: Part 2
Harvey emphasizes that he values integrity and takes full responsibility for his actions. However, he believes Mo’Nique and her husband and manager,Sidney Hicks, could of went about calling out Oprah Winfrey, Tyler Perry and Lee Daniels differently.
“I take full responsibility for it, it came out my mouth, so I can’t say that I didn’t say it,” he said. “But to people that really know me, I have lived my whole life as a man of integrity. So when I was referring to ‘integrity’ in that interview, I was talking about the method in which things were being done, and that is all it was.”
Harvey continues to speak to his younger audience regarding his interviewing style.
“I shouted out and it happened, I regret it, but I want young people, the kids that come to my camps, the young people that I mentor, the fans that really respect me, to know to just charge that one to my head and not to my heart,” he said. “Because in my heart, that is not what I have asked anyone to do. I have lived my whole life as a man of integrity, and I will stand on that, but I was really just talking about the method that they went about doing what they did, and that was it.”
Despite their differences, Harvey has agreed to help and do everything in his power to help his sister, Mo’Nique, mend her relationships in Hollywood in order for everyone to move forward.
Whether you agree or disagree about how Mo’Nique handled her different situations, she is still booked and busy. She is currently using her comedic talent for her Las Vegas residency at the SLS Hostel and Casino.