Mo'Nique Addresses Issues With Tiffany Haddish, Oprah in Contentious Shannon Sharpe Interview

Just weeks after comedian Katt Williams fired shots at Kevin Hart, Cedric the Entertainer, Steve Harvey, and more during an explosive interview with Shannon Sharpe, Mo'Nique appeared on Club Shay Shay to do the same. And in the latest episode, which dropped Wednesday, the 56-year-old had Tiffany Haddish, Oprah Winfrey, and more in her crosshairs.

When it comes to Haddish, Mo'Nique had still not forgotten a 2018 GQ interview in which the Girls Trip star made comments about her accusing Netflix of racial and gender bias, after she was paid less for a standup special compared to other comedians such as Dave Chappelle and Amy Schumer

"My business run different than her business," Haddish said at the time. "I don't live her life. I don't have that husband of hers. I'm looking at how [Netflix has] opened up so many opportunities for black females and comedy. When my people are dying, that's when you gonna catch me protesting. I'm not gonna protest because somebody got offered not the amount of money they wanted to get offered. If you don't like what they're offering you, just no longer do business with them."

Clearly, this didn't sit well with Mo'Nique, who questioned why Black women continue to throw each other under the bus. "She said, 'Well, I don't do business like Mo'Nique do business and I'm glad I don't have that husband of hers,'" she recalled. "And when I saw that, I said, 'Tiffany if you had a husband like mine, you may not have two DUIs. If you had a husband like mine, you may not be caught up in what looks like you could’ve been grooming a child."

Haddish was recently arrested for driving under the influence in Los Angeles. The latter comment references a controversial comedy skit she appeared in alongside comedian Ariel Spears in 2022 titled "Through a Pedophile's Eyes." It led to a lawsuit filed by the parents of two children in the skit, claiming they were coerced into appearing and "molested" on camera by Spears while Haddish watched. The lawsuit was eventually dismissed, and Haddish apologized for the skit.

On the subject of Winfrey, Mo'Nique brought up the famous incident in which the host blindsided her by inviting her estranged parents on her syndicated talk show after it had come out that she had been molested by her older brother as a child. Mo'Nique says that Winfrey asked for permission to have her brother on as a guest to apologize. But she never asked about her parents, which Mo'Nique says crossed a line.

To make matters worse, the incident came open the heels of Mo'Nique winning an Academy Award for the 2009 film Precious, for which Winfrey received a producer credit.

"She didn't have to call me and say, 'I'm gonna have your brother [on],'" Mo'Nique explained. "I start seeing commercials with my mother and my father ... and my other brother who used to be my manager, who knew the fear I had with the brother who was up on stage. We never talked about my mother being there."

To this day, Mo'Nique says she feels betrayal over Winfrey's actions. As a result, she told Sharpe that random elderly women would approach her in public to make negative comments about her mother. "Had Oprah Winfrey said, I'mma have your momma [on]'  I'd have said shut that sh--t down," she said. "I don't need not one seeing my momma be greedy, I don't need the world to see, shut it down."

As a final insult, she added that she later found out her family had initially approached Barbara Walters, who told Mo'Nique that she'd never do that to her.

Not surprisingly, Mo'Nique likewise defended Williams over his own much-talked about appearance, claiming that everything he said is known to be the truth.

"We get so caught up in the messenger that we'll overlook the message," she said. "People have a hard time hearing a five-foot-five giant tell the truth; people have a hard time with a Black woman over 200 pounds tell the truth. Because people [who] look like us, we should just be grateful that we got invited to the party. We should just be grateful that someone paid us attention."

Suffice to say, the interview was hardly devoid of controversy.