Steve Harvey regrets on-air feud with Mo'Nique: 'I've got to slow down when I'm talking'

Jayme Deerwester
Updated
The TV host says his exchange with longtime friend Mo'NIque about her reputation in Hollywood taught him that he needs to be more careful with his choice of words.

Steve Harvey is looking at last week's tense on-air exchange with Mo'Nique as a teachable moment.

When Mo'Nique appeared on the Feb. 13 episode of "Steve," the Oscar winner recalled how she had been labeled as "difficult" and eventually "blackballed" in Hollywood because she demanded additional pay for participating in the Oscar publicity campaign for the 2009 film "Precious."

“I’ve got to slow down when I’m talking,” he told People Sunday when asked about his interview with the star. “I can’t get into heated discussions, and I’ve got to just guard my words more carefully.”

"I said no to some very powerful people," Mo'Nique said regarding her stance on Oscar campaigning. She became a lightning rod again in 2018 when she proposed a Netflix boycott because the streaming platform wouldn't offer her the same pay for a stand-up special as it did for other big-name comedians, such as Chris Rock and Amy Schumer.

Mo'Nique then called out Harvey for a comment he made about her following the Netflix controversy, telling him, "When I heard you go on the air and you said, 'My sister done burnt too many bridges and there's nothing I can do for her now,' do you know how hurt I was?"

Harvey countered that he thought she did herself a "disservice" with her call-to-arms over Netflix, noting that it came off as "rich people problems." He also pointed out: "If we're gonna boycott, are we gonna not get subscriptions, turn it off, are we gonna go down there and get signs?"

Mo'Nique faulted Harvey and other powerful African-Americans for not being "strong enough to go public and say, 'We can't throw our sister under the bus.' "

"This ain't the black man's game. This ain't' the white man's game. This is the money game," he told her. "You cannot sacrifice yourself. The best thing you can do for poor people is not be one of them."

Eventually, the temperature in the room came down and Harvey ended the interview by promising to use his clout to help repair Mo'Nique's relationship with Hollywood power players.

Discussing the interview with People, Harvey took full responsibility for his words, noting, "It came out my mouth so I can't say I didn't say it. 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."

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Steve Harvey regrets on-air feud with Mo'Nique: 'I've got to slow down when I'm talking'