Mo’Nique was on a recent episode of Shannon Sharpe’s podcast Club Shay Shay, and boy, did she have some things to say. In the interview, Mo’Nique targeted Oprah Winfrey, proving the longstanding beef between the two women hasn’t gone away.
To be fair, Mo’Nique also had tea to spill on Tyler Perry, Tiffany Haddish, and Kevin Hart in the chat, and it also wasn’t the first time the standup and actress detailed her problems with Oprah. In 2023, Mo’Nique told The Hollywood Reporter that she expected a public apology from the former talk show host for having Mo’Nique’s estranged family, including Mo’Nique’s brother, who molested her, on Oprah’s program in 2010.
Mo’Nique said she confronted Winfrey about what happened, and Winfrey said she only invited her brother, and the rest of her family came along. According to Mo’Nique, Winfrey told her, “If I’ve done anything to offend you, I apologize,” but the Academy Award-winning actress wasn’t satisfied. In the THR interview, Mo’Nique also suggested that Winfrey and others conspired to “blackball” her as a “difficult performer” in Hollywood.
Mo’Nique unloaded about Oprah to Shannon Sharpe
Fast forward to Mo’Nique’s 2024 appearance on Shannon Sharpe’s Club Shay Shay podcast, and it appears that time does not heal all wounds. Mo’Nique told Sharpe that Oprah did check with her first about her brother’s appearance, explaining he wanted to warn others about child predators and to apologize. Mo’Nique said she wanted nothing to do with it but to go ahead. Then, however, Mo’Nique saw commercials promoting the episode with her whole family.
She added her family went to the late great Barbara Walters first, but Walters turned them down. According to Mo’Nique, unlike Oprah, Walters said, “‘Mo’Nique, I told your family, I can’t do that to you, I wouldn’t do that to you. You just won that [2010 Best Supporting Actress Oscar] — why would I do that to you.” Oprah had betrayed her, Mo’Nique added.
She told Sharpe, ” … Had Oprah Winfrey said, ‘I’m [going to] have your mama [on Oprah’s program],’ I would’ve said shut that s**t down.”