Whenever I see Steve Harvey, I’m reminded of his second ex wife, Mary Harvey, who recorded a series of YouTube videos in 2011 detailing the horrible way that Steve cheated on her and then scammed her in their divorce, taking custody of their then eight-year-old son and evicting her from the home where they lived. Steve convinced Mary to use his lawyer in the divorce, ensuring that he only had to pay her a pittance. Then, when Mary went public with the story of how Steve was a serial cheater who screwed her royally in the divorce, he sued her. I was reading over my coverage and Mary Harvey really impressed me with how matter-of-fact she was while describing what’s probably the worst thing that’s ever happened to her. The videos are no longer available, but you can read all about it here and here.
Mary was the person who was with Steve when he was homeless, living out of his car going to comedy gigs. She supported him during that time and made his career possible. So when People Magazine puts Steve on the cover and writes that his he has “no fairy godmother or anonymous benefactor, just integrity, ingenuity and success,” I have to call bullsh*t. Here’s more of People’s story, and I read the print edition and his personal life is totally glossed over, as you would expect. In Mary’s videos she explained how she was living out of his car with him, but in the version People told, Steve didn’t meet Mary until after that period and when he was back on his feet.
Spending 75 percent of his sporadic paychecks to Marcia [his first wife] to support the children, Harvey was living on as little as $50 per week and couldn’t afford an apartment. “That was an ugly period, and just very painful,” he says of becoming homeless in the late ‘80s. Occasionally comedy clubs would pit him up for a night in a hotel; otherwise he was forced to go to the bathroom in the woods and shower at rest stops, keeping what little food he could scrape together in an Igloo cooler on his backseat. “Everybody has a moment when they turn back, when you say to yourself, ‘This is too much,’” he says. “I had it on several occasions.”
While attempting to wash up at a hotel restroom one night between gigs, he found himself stuck hiding in a stall for hours waiting to rinse the soap off his body in the sink. “So I had to wait. I sat down and started crying, but a voice said, ‘If you keep going, I’m going to take you places you’ve never been.’ It was like God said ‘Don’t quit, you’re almost there.’” That’s when Harvey got the call to perform at the Apollo. A sitcom followed in 1996; in 1997 he landed a spot along side Cedric the Entertainer and the late Bernie Mac in the Original Kings of Comedy tour. Says Harvey: “I’ve been on TV ever since.”
With some success under his belt, Harvey married again, this time to Mary Shackelford in 1996, but realized early on he had made a mistake. “I got married for the wrong reasons. I was tired of being alone. I have to own that. It was me, not her. But it was bad for a long time,” he says. During a protracted divorce, Harvey says, he “took a hit in the asset department.” When the divorce was finalized in 2005, his show Steve Harvey’s Big Time Challenge was also canceled. “I was starting over,” he says. “I wouldn’t been homeless again, but now I could do stand-up and make $75,000 in a night.”
[From People Magazine, print edition]
Also, People has a glowing section about Steve’s current wife, Marjorie. They left out the part where Steve cheated on Mary with Marjorie and where Marjorie called his house and was very messy about the whole thing.
I think People forgot to use the word “ruthless” when describing Steve. I mean maybe he’s all sunshine and rainbows when he likes people, and I’ve seen his talkshow and watched Family Feud a few times. He’s funny and personable, but I don’t know how he can claim to be super religious while he treats people like that. Plus his dating advice is incredibly sexist. Maybe it’s possible we’re only hearing one side of the story, but it was so damning, and his ex was convincing. I just can’t see him as this standup guy.
photos credit: WENN.com
he is so bizarre looking and he is also not very smart:
During the interview with Tyra Banks, an audience member asked for some dating advice and Harvey said one of the most important questions to ask is, “Does he have a relationship with God?”
“You’re sitting there talking with a dude and he tells you he’s an atheist, you need to pack it up and go home,” said Harvey. “You know, talking to a person that don’t believe in God, what’s his moral barometer? Where’s it at? It’s nowhere.”
That topic was also covered in his New York Times No. 1 best seller Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Man. In reference to that issue, on CNN Joy Behar asked Harvey, “You say in the book that you wouldn’t go out with a woman, I guess, a woman should not go out with a man that doesn’t believe in God.”
Harvey said, “No, I mean, why would you?”
The exchange continued,
Behar: “Do you believe that only people who are religious are ethical and moral?”
Harvey: “No. I just believe if you don’t believe in God, then where is your moral barometer? That’s just me talking. You can believe what you want to believe. But if you’re an atheist, you’re basing your goodness and morality on what? I mean, but what is an atheist? I don’t really get into that. I’ve talked the people all the time. I’m an atheist. I just walk away. I don’t know what to say to you.”
Behar: “Well, an atheist is someone that doesn’t quite believe that there is somebody out there, some God out there.”
Harvey: “Well, then, to me you’re an idiot.”
Behar: “Okay. Well –”
Harvey: “I’m cool with that. Probably not the right, politically correct thing to say. But if you don’t believe in God, I mean, really, you have to have an explanation for this. You can’t just tell me it spun out of a gastrous ball and then all of a sudden we were evolved from monkeys. Why we still got monkeys? There is too much open. I just believe that and if you don’t believe that, then I don’t like talking to you.”
I don’t understand people who think atheists can’t have a moral barometer. It’s such a weird way of thinking. And I’m a practising Catholic.
He showed his when he screwed his ex wife over, the upstanding Christian that he is.
He is basically saying that if he personally did not live under the threat of hell, he would be raping and murdering at will. It actually say a lot about him and what type of person he is..
a person who does the right thing for the right reason (and avoids doing bad stuff for the right reason) is infinitely more moral than someone who needs the promise of the great reward of heaven (and/or punishment of hell) to do the right thing/avoid doing the bad thing. Most of those allegedly moral “G-d fearing” people do all sorts of immoral crap and justify their actions & character by saying they’re saved. Sorry, anyone who says a belief in G-d or being part of organized religion is critical to someone being moral is someone who is admitting they’d be completely unscrupulous without religion (and probably commits a lot of immoral actions but finds a way to rationalize themselves as being “good”)
Christ on a Penny Farthing, he is the worst kind of religious person, in that they are all seeing, all knowing beacons of how we all should live. No one who isnt religious can be a good person and all religious people are amazing, forgiving, ethically sound morally good people.
Feck, it’s like the religious equivalent of Joey from Friends asking if you have no TV where does all your furniture face??
Thats yet another reason to dislike this man. I always knew he was a hateful misogynist who pours his retrogressive ideas into the public realm using his talk show and books, who jumped the religion bandwagon for the $.
His religion shtick is so fake its painful to watch. There was a clip of him at some smarmy televangelists show that went viral a few years ago. He “wept” through his testimony in the most insincere way possible. Then when asked about whether he has stopped certain behavior since Jesus, he grinned and said something like “I am a work in progress”. In other words, he does as he likes and still gets to tap into that Tyler Perry market. Awful man.
YYESSSSSSSS NAYA!!! all of this!! you think you’re me!! I supremely dislike this creepy toothed pandering to the lowest common denominator ass dude, I Too group him right on up with Tyler Perry and that respectability for women pandering charlatans
No lies detected! Sure he’s entertaining on Family Feud but always in the back of my mind is the knowledge that this dude is shady as hell. Oh and I saw that interview on TD Jakes I think it was. Barf is right. The insincerity, posturing and playing to the audience on those shows make me roll my eyes so hard you’d think I needed exorcism.
My husband, the devout atheist, haaaaaaaaaaaaaaates Steve Harvey (as do I, but never knew much about him until the mister explained the depths of SH’s religious bigorty).
So what? He believes in God and has cheated on every wife,including Marjorie.
He believes in God and had his buddy,Bishop Eddie Long(Stroke) on the show.Bishop Long who paid a settlement to multiple young men he “mentored” aka sexually abused when they were teens.
So his first wife’s name was Marcia
His second wife’s name is Mary
His current wife’s name is Marjorie
Am I seeing a trend here? Marjorie better make sure no woman who’s name begins with “M” comes near Steve.
When I see him there’s only one thing I think of: halitosis.
Just curious….is that based on some commonly known fact about him?
No, he just looks like he’d have horrible smelling breath.
He’s pond scum
He’s super annoying on tv and a jerk in real life. And I bet his breath smells too lolll.
I love this post and agree 100%. No matter his ex wife’s faults, she still supported him when he had nothing.. isn’t that worth, at the very least, a mention? My ex husband left me for his “upgrade” and everything him and I accomplished together became nothing to him. I even tried to stay a friend to him and in the end even that was destroyed because his “upgrade” was jealous. Sad.
Totally random, but I saw him interview the lady who invented “Prancercise”. And he was basically openly mocking her on his show. She was the butt of the joke. Why would you invite someone on your show only to mock them? I didn’t think well of him after that.
Can’t stand this guy. He mocks people all of the time and then turns around and pretends to be all caring on his show and that’s what most people see. I heard him on a radio show once openly mock children with special needs. God would not do that Steve.
He’s probably one of these c*ckheads who thinks that they are being punished by God for something. Everything happens is Gods plan so just deal with it, unless it’s something to him in which case it’s not, and when stuff turns around, it’s God rewarding him but not others because he’s just so damn special.
As someone pointed out above, he strikes me as one of these “if I f*ck up it’s ok because I’ll say sorry and I’m learning but if you f*ck up, you can bet I’m going to drag you through the coals for it”
Her accounts regarding the new wife, custody and support were disproved in court. She sent the son off on a plane by himself to his dad without telling Steve first. She received 3 homes, $1.5 million in cash and $40,000/mo for 2 years. He also was married to his first wife during his worst years–at least according to dates of his children’s birth. His youngest with his first wife was born in 1991 and he broke through around 1993. A judge also ruled that Marjorie didn’t play a role in the marital breakup noting that she was never mentioned in the original divorce filing. There was a gag order in place when the videos were put up so the judge ordered them removed on the basis that the information was demonstrably false, violated the gag order and allowed for no rebuttal since both parties were bound by the gag order.
I don’t think one way or the other about Harvey but thanks for your spin on it. He might still be a dirt bag but it’s so easy for some to believe the ex-wives tales, just because the ex wives said it.
AS far as we know his marriage could have already been in trouble while he was trying to make it in the business. Maybe once he started getting some work that paid well it gave him an opportunity to get out of an already failing marriage.
Thanks for that info. There are always two sides to a story and the truth usually falls somewhere in the middle. He’s still sketchy though for reasons having nothing to do with his ex-wife Mary.
@kori – good of you to provided people with some real facts. I don’t have an opinion on him one way or the other but it’s not right to jump to conclusions.
I read his book (“Act like a lady, Think like a man”) and there was nothing “sexist” about it. His advice to women is to know their own worth and never settle or sell themselves short. Asking a man early in a relationship what his plans are about you two demonstrates one’s self-respect. Waiting to have sex is smart – gives you a chance to know the guy better. And so on.
By the way, he mentions in that book something about not being a good husband and becoming one after his current wife set him straight. She flat out refused to play along as in “keep it casual” after a certain period of time, packed her bags and was at the door telling him to call her when he gets his act together. She could be still available then 🙂
There were some sexist overtones to the book but honestly I found it offered the best dating advice I’ve ever come across (besides waiting to have sex – have sex whenever you want because it too will weed out guys who base your value on it). Be honest about what you want, be who you are and don’t be afraid to ASK for what you want and if the guy isn’t on board then move on. Essentially as you said: know your value. People these days are taught so much game playing nonsense in dating when instead we just need to be forthright and I’m glad that information is out there. And as an aside I met my husband right after reading this book; took the book’s advice and told him only a few weeks in I didn’t want kids but did want to be married someday and he didn’t run, so I knew.
Rats. I sort of knew he was a sexist jerk but I had no idea of how bad it was. My nail salon has him on during my manicure sometimes, which is the only time I’ve watched his show, and I’ve raised my eyebrows at him sometimes, but I thought he was better than this. Is nobody nice anymore?
I feel the same way. I watch his show sometimes and I thought he was pretty funny and nice. He seems like a good man. I saw the show this week with Bishop Long and I wondered why he was giving this person a platform when he seemed so shady. I am sad to learn he’s bad news himself.
I worked in Detroit for a short time and one of my bosses claimed she had a longstanding affair with him. She’s cray but I also totally believe her on that. They seemed to be a perfect match in that respect.
No one talks about his wife’s life before they got married. She’s from Memphis, and it’s well known she was involved in a long term relationship with one or two of the biggest a drug kingpins in the city.
I feel like this is his public persona. Whatevs. I have no dogs in this fight. I refuse to be anywhere his books or dating advice. No way he’s suddenly the expert on dating. F that.
I guess we can’t judge salvation.
I dislike him w/his jabba jaws self.
I recently saw an episode of Family Feud where he seemed very attracted to one of the women at the podium, and all of a sudden started falling over himself saying something like ‘I’m a NEW Christian, I can’t control myself’. And so much of the comments and banter that he has with the contestants is sexual in nature. It’s disturbing at times. Then when you watch him interact with kids it’s just so funny and entertaining. It’s difficult to separate all the personalities and know which one is the true him.
And no, he’s not very educated and it shows, but that adds to the comedy at times. It’s just his uncouth ways, as well as his preference for certain people over others that comes across as bigoted that can be annoying.
That reminds me of a conversation I had with an elderly aunt.She thinks Bill Cosby is innocent because of the way he interacted with little kids on some kids show he was on.SMH
I’d love to know where Steve Harvey’s moral barometer is. He’s a piece of shit.
He’s as much as said his moral barometer is such that he’d be raping and killing and stealing if he wasn’t scared of hell.
Anyone who pulls that ‘atheists can’t have morals’ crap is someone to be afraid of. They’re telling you what their inner-most thoughts are, what their desires are, what they want to do.
His smile doesn’t extend to his eyes. They are flat and lifeless.