Tituss Burgess Addresses Andy Cohen Comments on Wendy Williams' Show: 'I Said What I Said'
Tituss Burgess is further clarifying comments he made about his Sunday appearance on Watch What Happens Live and the Bravo show’s host, Andy Cohen.
The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt star, 40, discussed the interaction with Wendy Williams on her talk show, The Wendy Williams Show, and while he was hesitant to go into much detail at first, said that he didn’t want to “waste time” rehashing a misstep from a “comedic giant.”
Burgess was referring to Eddie Murphy, who he recently worked with on the upcoming Netflix movie Dolemite Is My Name, which is set to make its debut at the Toronto Film Festival. On Watch What Happens Live, Cohen, 51, had asked Burgess about working with Murphy, 58, in light of homophobic jokes he had made early on in his career.
Williams, 55, asked Burgess about his relationship with Cohen, saying that she and the Bravo host had had their own falling out and had recently made up.
“But what has happened with you and Andy?” Williams asked.
“There’s a reason he wasn’t on your show for six years,” Burgess said. “I think people misinterpret who they see on the screen sometimes. And then begin to have a relationship towards you based on misinformation.”
Williams asked him to clarify what he meant, saying, “Can you talk normal? What are you saying? Talk normal. Stop being Hollywood.”
“No, I’m not being Hollywood. That’s the problem,” Burgess responded. Williams then mentioned his “rant” on Instagram about the interaction with Cohen, to which Burgess said, “Not a rant, just truth.” The actor discussed his appearance on the Bravo show in the comments section of his Instagram on Monday, calling Cohen “a messy queen.”
“I will not tolerate the dismantling of anyone’s legacy, especially not my own,” Burgess told Williams. “And who we were speaking about has done a beautiful job being the comedic giant that he is. And he has a wonderful movie coming out, and I was not going to participate in talking about that.”
Burgess didn’t seem to want to go over his Watch What Happens Live appearance again, so Williams explained to the audience that Cohen had mentioned Murphy’s past, and Burgess said that he had nothing but good things to say about the star.
“I said what I said,” Burgess said of how he responded on the show, adding, “Tituss will not be trapped. No. No. We have way too much work to do, we have far more important things to talk about in this nation right now, especially what is going on politically.”
“So I wasn’t going to waste time digging up something that happened a while ago,” he continued before he and Williams moved on to other topics of conversation. “We’ve all moved past from it, and we’ve all learned from it.”
When asked by Access on Tuesday if he and Burgess were feuding, Cohen responded, “He might be, I’m not.”
After being asked if Burgess would be welcoming back on WWHL, Cohen said, “He’s been on four times, sure. I don’t think he would be … He could can do whatever he wants. I just don’t want to offend him.”
Reps for Cohen and Bravo did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment.
Burgess later addressed the situation again on his Instagram Stories, saying “We all have pasts! The worst kind of human is a human that forgets they have one and proceeds to zero in on something you have moved on and learned from.”
“I wanted no part of that,” Burgess went on. “My future is bright and light is what I intend to bring.”
The actor then praised Murphy, calling him “the true king of comedy.”
“Hold on to your seats, cause the movie I got to make with a living legend is going to re-educate/remind/and introduce to some in the world why Mr. Murphy is the true king of comedy,” he wrote. “I sat back and took copious notes while filming my first major motion picture. It’s an honor to be in a film making it’s [sic] Toronto Film Festival debut.”
Cohen responded to the criticism on his Sirius XM radio show, Andy Cohen Live, on Monday, saying, “He wasn’t having me. What can I tell you? From the jump. I was trying, but no idea.”
“He ran out of there. Did not sign the guest book — he ran out,” he said. “He was like, ‘He knows I was here.’ That’s what he said to the person who asks to sign the guest book. It was something else, all right.”
“He made an entertaining show, I’ll tell you that,” Cohen added. “Sometimes it’s fun to watch the show when the guest hates the host.”
Williams and Burgess seemed to get along well, however. Once the two realized they live in the same city, Williams suggested they exchange phone numbers and become friends.
“Done and done,” Burgess said, adding, “Just don’t give it to you-know-who.”
