Although she received an apology from Oprah Winfrey with no cameras around, Mo’Nique told The Hollywood Reporter that she “demands and expects” one publicly from the talk show queen.
Here’s how the first interaction went down.
The comedian was invited to actress Alfre Woodard‘s home in 2014 for a party in honor, Lupita Nyong’o, who was nominated for an Oscar for her work in 12 Years a Slave. “They invited you if you were a Black woman who had won or been nominated for an Oscar,” Mo’Nique said. “We all had to tell Lupita what our experience was and share in an upliftment get-together.”
Mo’Nique had not had a conversation with Winfrey since the 2010 Oscars. About a month later, Mo’Nique’s appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show, where the Precious actor’s brother, Gerald Imes, admitted to molesting a 7-year-old Mo’Nique while he was 13 years old. He kept doing so for several years.
She had spoke about it previously in public. Winfrey called to let her know that her “brother had called her and he wanted to come on the show to let her know how parents can watch out for predators.” Mo’Nique said Winfrey then asked her if she also wanted to appear on the same show. He offered to apologize to his sister publicly.
“Oprah, I don’t want no part of that,” Mo’Nique said she told Winfrey. Yet, Mo’Nique said she gave her blessing to Winfrey to allow him to go on the show with her.
After the episode aired on April 19, 2010, Mo’Nique was upset that it was not just her brother on the show, but other members of her family—her mother, Alice Imes; her father, Gerald Imes Sr.; and another brother, Stephen Imes.
Mo’Nique said she and Winfrey “had a lengthy conversation” before the episode was taped and she went into detail to inform Winfrey that she and her mother “were not on good terms. We weren’t even speaking. Then I see the show and I can tell that my mother is trying to make a dollar. I know my family.”
Disappointed that Winfrey allowed this to take place, she tried to contact Winfrey. “I reached out to everybody I could to try to get to Oprah,” Mo’Nique says. “No. Nothing. It just went dead.”
She finally spoke to Winfrey when they both went to Woodard’s home. Moments after giving Nyong’o advice publicly, she then motioned to Winfrey.
“Oprah Winfrey was sitting on my right. And then I turned to her and said, ‘Now I need to talk to you.’ There were some phenomenal Black women there. You could have heard a pin drop. I said, ‘Since you didn’t want to return my calls, for whatever reason, I’m going to say this right here.’”
Winfrey said only her brother was invited but the other family members arrived with him to the taping. Mo’Nique said she was lying. That was when Winfrey said, “I’m going to look into your mother and father being on the show because I didn’t know anything about that,” and then she added “something like, ‘If I’ve done anything to offend you, I apologize.’”
Now, Mo’Nique, according to The Hollywood Reporter, “still demands and expects public apologies” from Winfrey as well as Tyler Perry.