Mo’Nique paid a visit to Shannon Sharpe’s buzzing podcast Club Shay Shay on Feb. 7, and the 56-year-old comedienne called out Kevin Hart for allegedly turning his back on her when she was blackballed from Hollywood.
The actress and standup comic claimed that the Night School star gave her the cold shoulder when Tyler Perry, Oprah Winfrey and several other bigwigs in Tinseltown tried to allegedly blackball her.
Mo’Nique claimed Kevin Hart told Hollywood execs he wanted “nothing” to do with her.
According to the Maryland native, Hart’s phony behavior did not appear immediately during her fallout with Perry, Oprah and Hollywood execs. They were close before the rift.
The Oscar Award-winning actress admitted that the comedian acted as a mediator between her and the 54-year-old filmmaker when she was desperate for Perry to apologize for the disparaging comments he allegedly made that caused her to miss out on good-paying Hollywood projects. The star claimed that Perry had informed several individuals in the film industry that she was “difficult to work with.”
Hart reached out to Perry after Mo’Nique spoke about her sour relationship with the actor and director on his Gold Minds podcast in 2021.
“Kevin kept his word,” the veteran actress told Sharpe. “He reached out to Tyler Perry. Kevin Hart called me back about, maybe a week or so later. He said, ‘Mo I talked to Tyler. He said he don’t want to revisit it.’ He said, ‘But I tell you what, let’s move past that Mo. Let’s do some great things together. Don’t even worry about it. Whatever y’all want to do, I will partner with you. I will executive produce with you. You just let me know what you want to do.’”
Hart also cut the Moesha star a check when she was in a financial rut.
“I want to make sure that I put that out there. That brother really helped us out when we needed to be helped out,” the star clarified.
The 44-year-old actor’s proposition came at a good time for Mo’Nique because she was in talks with Endemol — a TV production company — to produce a talk show. Execs were thrilled to hear about The Jumani star’s possible involvement with the project, but things allegedly turned sour when Endemol called up Hart’s management to confirm if he would step into executive produce the show alongside Mo.
“We get a call from Endemol. Endemol says, ‘We just got a call from Kevin Hart’s manager, Dave Becky, and Dave Becky said Kevin doesn’t want anything to do with Mo’Nique. So, whatever she told ya’ll, he doesn’t want to do anything with her. Nothing… he doesn’t want any kind of relationship with Mo’Nique.’”
Taken aback by the news, Mo’Nique called Kevin to find out why he backed away from the project last minute. According to the star, Hart claimed that there was a “miscommunication” between him and his manager at the time. Sadly, the comedienne told Sharpe that it’s been “two years” since she’s heard from the actor —and he’s never offered clarity about his sudden switch up.
“If you talk to him, I talked to him. I’ve never talked back to Kevin Hart again. So, that’s what we’re faced with. When you allow somebody to come in between a relationship with a woman that you said, I’m like your mother. You said I’m like these things. I didn’t ask you for that.”
Further along in the Club Shay Shay interview, Mo’Nique called on Tyler Perry to apologize publicly for disrespecting her.
The rift between Mo’Nique and Perry allegedly stemmed from her refusal to participate in the campaign trail for Precious. Mo’Nique — who won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress in 2009 thanks to her role in the film — previously told TS Madison that although she was happy with the film’s success, she didn’t want to make Hollywood her “priority.” The Queens Of Comedy alum wasn’t contractually obligated to join the press run for the flick, but Perry and Oprah asked her to participate on more than one occasion. She became frustrated with the duo after they allegedly asked her to do the press tour for “free.”At the time, the star alleged that she had a recording of Perry apologizing for blackballing her from Hollywood after their major fallout.
The Parkers star mentioned the alleged recording again during her candid sitdown with Sharpe on Tuesday.
“When it comes to Tyler Perry, I will not allow you to discount or devalue because that is your voice on that audio… What do I possibly owe you an apology for when you’ve admitted?”
According to the stand-up comic, Perry’s badmouthing allegedly caused her to lose a big opportunity from Lee Daniels. Mo’Nique told Sharpe that Daniels offered her the role of Cookie Lyon on the hit TV show Empire before Taraji P. Henson took the gig. However, Perry’s smack-talking behind the scenes caused her to lose the role.
“I was offered that. Then, Felita called me back and said, ‘Baby girl, they said you are too difficult to work with’…. Do you see how that cost my family and with no accountability? Because oh, it’s the great Tyler Perry. No, you have got to be accountable for that. Oprah Winfrey, you have got to be accountable for the things you’ve done to my family.”
Watch Mo’Nique’s full interview with Shannon Sharpe on Club Shay Shay below. Thoughts?
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