For Kevin Hart, Las Vegas once meant trouble — now, he sees it as a business opportunity
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When you're Kevin Hart, a trip to Sin City doesn't always stay in Vegas.
One vacation led to a chance meeting with "Straight Out of Compton" producer Will Packer, which opened the doors to a lucrative film career. Another led to a 2017 cheating scandal that would follow him for years. Now Kevin Hart visits Las Vegas only with his wife, Eniko Parrish, by his side.
Hart’s friend and longtime collaborator Harry Ratchford revealed as much while speaking to Los Angeles Times columnist Amy Kaufman for a recent profile on the comedian. According to Ratchford, Hart now books a trip to Vegas "only if his wife is with him.”
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Nevertheless, the "Jumanji" actor finds solace in the never-ending excitement of Sin City. "Even though he encountered a misfortune there, it’s always been somewhere where Kev can let his hair down, party, blow off steam and somewhat still move in obscurity," Ratchford added.
Earlier this month, the multi-hyphenate celebrity brought his Hartbeat Weekend — a four-day comedy and music event — to Las Vegas. Joining him for the boozy ride at Resorts World were J. Cole, Jack Harlow, Ludacris, Kaskade and RL Grime. Also joining Hart for this latest Vegas trip were Parrish, their two teen children, and his brother.
More than five years ago, the "Get Hard" actor and stand-up comedian cheated on Parrish — who was pregnant with their first child — with a woman he had met in Las Vegas. Amid reports that an unidentified woman allegedly tried to extort him for a video featuring sexually suggestive content, Hart apologized to Parrish in an Instagram video shared in September 2017.
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"I gotta do better and I will. I'm not perfect and have never claimed to be," he captioned his video.
Months later, he confessed to the infidelity, telling "The Breakfast Club" in December 2017 he was "beyond irresponsible.
"That's Kevin Hart in his dumbest moment. That's not the finest hour of my life," he said. "With that being said, you make your bed you lay in it. You can't say what were you thinking, because you weren't thinking."
The comedian and Parrish also addressed the scandal in his 2020 Netflix docuseries "Don't F— This Up."
More than five years after the cheating incident, it seems Hart, Parrish and Las Vegas are all on good terms — at least that's what it looks like on Instagram. To celebrate Hart's birthday during Hartbeat Weekend, the couple donned matching crimson ensembles.
"Happy 44th babe," Parrish captioned one Instagram photo with her husband.
Despite his complicated relationship with Vegas and its seemingly endless partying, Hart told The Times, age has taken its toll.
"I’m still recovering,” he said. “I’m not 26 anymore; 44 is on me now. So I can’t do that consistently — not with my schedule.”
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
