Source: SplashNews.com and John Lamparski/Getty Images / Splash and Getty
Last year, Mo’Nique made a much talked about visit to The Breakfast Club to confront Charlamagne over his decision to label her “Donkey of the Day” because of her request that fans boycott Netflix for lowballing her on a comedy special deal. After she confronted him about what he said (and asked if he would call his own mother and grandmother who fought against injustice a “donkey”), she made it clear she was not a fan of him, saying, you don’t know the history of the business that you’re in, and you sit behind this microphone and you try to be the guru of Black culture. I’m gonna need you to know the history of us before you begin to label us. And once you know the history, you know I’m not saying anything unique, brother.”
“We have to explain brothers like you,” she added after the interview was over, calling him a traitor of sorts. “We do. And when we watch that movie, Birth of a Nation, and we saw that man walk his wife into the master’s house, we watched him walk his wife in, we watched him go back and get her, you’re that brother.”
More than a year later, she did a long interview with Comedy Hype where she discussed her grievances with the likes of Oprah, Lee Daniels and Steve Harvey. She had some thoughts to share about Charlamagne again when asked about the work he’s doing to bring awareness about mental health issues to the Black community.
“I won’t even accept that,” she said. “Stop it, Lenard! You’re advocating for mental illness?”
Lenard is Charlamagne’s real name, and Mo’Nique famously called him by that during her Breakfast Club interview.
She said in the Comedy Hype chat that she finds his attempts to aid people in seeking help for mental illness odd because she believes he’s detrimental to the community and has a lack of empathy. Both she and husband Sidney Hicks even questioned what makes him an authority figure when it comes mental health, politics or anything of importance.
“I’ve seen and heard of the destruction that brother has done in our community. I’ve heard the poison that he’s poured out over the air in our community,” she said. “Now everyone’s allowed to change, but I think that the only way we make change in our community is first acknowledge that we were part of the damage.”
This week, Charlamagne caught wind of what was said about him via Angela Yee’s “Rumor Report,” and he responded by saying the 51-year-old needs to find herself some peace.
“Unlike Mo’Nique, I hold myself accountable and acknowledge my BS,” she said. “I’m praying for Mo’Nique. I want Mo’Nique to find the healing she needs. She’s been talking about the same things and the same people for the last 15 years. I’m new to the conversation, but the Oprahs, the Tyler Perrys, the Lee Daniels, everybody else, is always the problem. And even if those people did her wrong, she got to let that hurt go because it’s not good for her mental health.”
The 41-year-old radio personality finished his thoughts by saying Mo needs to forgive and move on already,
“I really do pray that she finds it in her heart to forgive them because it’s the only way she’s going to find peace, because I don’t hear a woman who’s at peace.”
