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Tiffany Haddish has often detailed the difficult relationship she’s shared with her mother over the years. In The Last Black Unicorn, Haddish’s memoir, she shared that her mother’s entire personality changed when she suffered a head injury after a severe car accident. As a result, Haddish, who was just 8-years-old at the time, had to not only raise her younger siblings, she had to teach her mother everything she taught her as a child. But because of the head injury, she was no longer the mother she knew. She was cruel and often verbally and physically abusive to her throughout her childhood and even as an adult.
But over the years, Haddish has made a point to be in her mother’s life. And as her career has grown, she’s been able to take care of her mother in new ways and repair the relationship. See what she said about it during her recent interview with Hollywood Unlocked.
Jason Lee: You honored your mother last night. You was getting a little choked up. I always so the process of forgiving my mom before she died was hard and I don’t know if it was complete. But looking at you up there, how did you get to a place of forgiveness?
Tiffany Haddish: It is a long road and I’m still working on it. Still, everyday working on it. But I have to put myself in her shoes. What tools did she have to be the best? Not a lot. And then when she had that car accident, everything was taken away from her and she had to rebuild. And here I am, an 8-year-old little girl trying to teach her everything that she taught me which might not have been enough for her. Her vocabulary wasn’t all together. She had a head injury. It’s horrible.
Also, you got to look at it like ‘what if the tables are turned?’ What if I have children or adopt children and something happens to me and I end up not being the best that I could possibly be. Do I want them to sh*t on me for the rest of my life that I’m here on this earth or do I want them to try their best to treat me as well as they possibly can? And I just feel like do unto others as you want them to do unto you. That’s the golden rule in every religion, every Bible, every manner book, treat people the way you want to be treated.
So, even though she was not the nicest and not the best at times, I feel like kill her with the kindness. And I’ve seen it change her. Seeing her not be able to do all the things she wanted, the frustration and the guilt that she has. At the end of my book, I say all I want to do is make enough money to get my mom out of that mental institution, get her the best doctors, the best diet, you know, get her together the best as possible. And I’m doing it. I just bought her a house. I’m broke as hell.
Her mother telling her she was proud of her.
When I got her out the institution and she came to the show that I did at the Microsoft Theater. Did that show and my sister brought her in but didn’t tell me that she was going to be there. And we’re backstage and she just comes up to me and says, tears in her eyes, ‘I’m so proud of you. You were able to bring all these different people together. I’m so proud of you.’ I could have died right there. I was satisfied with everything right there. And she gave me the best hug. It was the hug I had been wanting since I was 7-8-years old. That mama hug like
‘I got you.’ I love that lady. I can’t stand her sometimes but I love her. That’s my first love”
You can watch Tiffany’s full interview in the video below.
