Photo Credit: Screenshot/YouTube
Steve Harvey sat down with longtime friend and comedienne Mo’Nique last week, and things got heated between the two as they argued about Mo’Nique’s methodology in protesting Netflix to garner equal pay and her refusal to do any promo without pay for her 2009 Oscar-winning film, Precious.
Focused on the idea of “integrity,” Steve and Mo’Nique went back and forth about the importance of staying true one’s principles over receiving a check.
For those who missed it, the actress told the talk show host, “Before the money game is the integrity game, and we’ve lost integrity worrying about the money.”
Openly disagreeing, Harvey responded, “If I crumble, my children crumble. My grandchildren crumble. I cannot, for the sake of my integrity, stand up here and let everybody that’s counting on me crumble so I can make a statement.”
Their televised argument made headlines, and Steve has now addressed their intense quarrel saying “I really wish…that I had chosen my words a little bit more carefully.”
“I really wish, when I was talking in a seated exchange, that I had chosen my words a little bit more carefully because it came out in a way I didn’t intend for it to be. I don’t want young people out there or people who consider me a role model to think I’ve asked anyone to compromise their integrity – which I haven’t – for money.”
He continued, “We kept harping on the way she was going about doing the things she was doing. And I kept saying that’s not the way. When I was referring to integrity, I was talking about the method in which they chose to go about what they were doing. I misspoke, and I have to take responsibility for that.”
Catch Steve’s thoughts about his conversation with Mo’Nique above.