Comedian Steve Harvey, 53, has a syndicated radio talk show and holds relationship seminars. He also has two books out in which he gives relationship advice to women, Straight Talk, No Chaser: How to Find, Keep, and Understand a Man and Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Man. Steve is currently on his third wife, who he’s been married to since 2007, and has four children by different women. The last we heard from Steve he was claiming that men could not be platonic friends with attractive women, because they would always want to sleep with them. So I guess it’s not surprising to hear that this God-fearing man, who gives relationship advice for a living, cheated repeatedly on his last wife.

Steve’s second wife Mary Harvey has recorded a series of three youtube videos in which she discusses what went on in her marriage. This woman’s story was so well told and so harrowing, that I found myself crying during the third video when she revealed the outcome. It sounds so devastating and yet she recounted the details so thoughtfully and with such class. If you have time, watch this woman’s story on YouTube. It’s incredible.

I’m going to quote the highlights from The YBF, but they do not do justice to Mary’s story and how well she tells it. I went a little overboard with the coverage (below), but I think her story is worth it.

Mary Harvey, Steve’s former wife of 16 years, is now partaking in Youtubery to blast her ex husband about what kind of man he really is. And it’s all because Steve is suing HER because he didn’t get offered a show on Oprah’s OWN.

Mary Harvey, a former cosmetics associate, wants you all to know that the uber successful radio host/”relationship expert”/comedian/actor/author that we all know as Steve Harvey is not the same man she married several years ago. And to the public, he’s acting like a stand-up guy that he really is not, at least not to her.

Here’s a video of her detailing Steve’s cheating habits with his mistresses–including one chick who sent a letter to Mary about condoms on the nightstand–and how he cheated on Mary with his current wife Marjorie. Of course, it is well known that Marjorie was originally Steve’s other woman. But who knew she called Mary and Steve’s house during their cheating escapades as if she had every right to enter the marriage?

– Mary says Marjorie called their marital home claiming to be “checking up on” her application to work at Steve’s suit company.
– Mary said she once confronted Marjorie.
– Mary received a CONFIDENTIAL letter from another of Steve’s mistresses named Terry, while she was at the beauty shop. [sic] The letter was meant for Steve. And it detailed their cheating escapades, condom usage, hard core anal sex, and an abortion.
– Mary said she and Steve used to steal gas and save coins just to get him to his gigs in their poor and early days.
– Their son, Wynton who is now 12, almost died in childbirth and so did Mary. This was right after [ed note: timeline is unclear] she found out Steve was cheating on her.
– She stayed with Steve even though she knew about the cheating because she wanted the family she had worked for and created, and wanted it for her kids.
– Steve evicted her from her home and took custody of their son Winton, turning the boy against her.
– Steve convinced the court that she didn’t deserve a cut of the businesses she helped build with him.

[From The YBF, last two lines from CB]

I was so impressed and moved by this woman’s story. She wasn’t angry or upset about it and just told it like it was. In fact she spent a lot of time reminiscing about how Steve wooed her (in the first video) and about how they built a life together over 16 years.

In the second video (also above), Mary talks about how she almost lost her son with Steve, Winton, when he was born in 1996. Doctors found that the cord was around the baby’s neck and performed an emergency c-section which saved the baby’s life. Around that time, Mary figured out that Steve was cheating on her. I was so touched with how she explained it:

During this emotional time in my life, it was further complicated when I realized that I was not alone in my relationship with my husband. That was a painful thing to have to deal with. I really didn’t want to… accept it. At that time our life and lifestyle and Steve’s career had really started to move forward, and there were a lot of outside influences around us constantly. It began to be a concern of mine, but you can’t lock yourself away – you have to continue to live your life, you have to be sociable and all of that.

She intercepted a letter from Steve’s then-girlfriend (not his current wife)
Realizing that, when that moment did hit me… it was on our second wedding anniversary. I was in Los Angeles… Steve was in Chicago waiting on me to join him… I’m sitting in my kitchen and my hairdresser’s there and I’m getting all dolled up. There was a knock on the door and… there was a package that had come to the apartment and it was really supposed to go to our office… the man gave it to me, and the instant that I saw it, it had like “confidential…” something just fell apart inside of me… I opened the package and I started to read this letter that was from this woman, and she really started to go into detail about how long she’d actually been in a relationship with my husband. [Ed Note: read the letter at The YBF and you will realize how much she is understating her case.]

When I first became aware that there were other people involved in my marriage, it was really hurtful to me, because my marriage represented so much to me. It was my life. My children, my marriage, the fact that Steve and I literally came from nothing. I had worked hard. I had given it my all up to that point to help make him successful.

Mary talked about how hard it was to make ends meet when she first started out with Steve and how they used to live out of their car driving to his gigs, getting by stealing gas and using change they’d saved up. She said when she found out that Steve was cheating, all those old moments flashed through her mind and she “thought about the struggle, thought about the discipline, thought about the commitment we made to each other to have a better life… when I realized that was being interfered with, I really didn’t know what to do… it kind of felt like I had been shattered to pieces.”

Mary wasn’t able to let go of her marriage after finding out about Steve cheating, so she stayed and tried to make it work. It was when she found out about Marjorie, his current wife and then-mistress that she faced reality.

Mary intercepted a phone call from another mistress, now his wife
“When I intercepted the phone call and Marjorie, his present wife, was on the phone, that was when I realized that it had really crossed over into something else. When you have somebody calling your home, it’s because they’d gotten a green light.

“Steve and I had been together for 16 years. To come face to face with the reality of what that phone call did and the things it set into motion. That was really difficult for me. I did confront her on the phone and she went into this scenario about she had to apply [for a job with Steve.]

“I said to her ‘I didn’t realize I was taking applications from my kitchen.’

In the third video, she talks about the fallout after the divorce in 2005. It sounds just awful and she got royally screwed. Steve has been married to his current wife since 2007.

On how Steve left without saying goodbye, moved in with the other woman
When I think about how quickly he moved forward from me to Marjorie. That was disturbing. With all the e-mails and the text messages and the different things that I was finding… I thought the least that he could do, make me whole at the end of it.

He just left, walked out the door. Once he realized that I was going to divorce him, he walked out, went right to NY to our apartment… and then she joined him there.

Never an apology, Steve never said that he was sorry. He had our housekeeper… forward [his] belongings to NY.

Steve took custody of their son and evicted her
When it was time to go before the judge, Steve did not show up… The judge said ‘Ok, you’re divorced,’ that was that.

The not having closure part was very devastating, but on top of that, he took my Winton. He turned my son against me, had me evicted from our house. Thrown out. All the businesses, all the money, the cars, at a moment when I was down and devastated. He maneuvered everything, he manipulated the courts against me. He went to court and under oath said that on his own he had built this whole thing on his own. I just sat at the table and cried… I woke up, everything was gone.

Steve is now suing her
For as much as I try and put all this behind me… there’s a lawsuit filed against me in Texas, because in Steve’s opinion I was responsible for Oprah not giving him a talkshow.

Many women have gone through situations similar to Mary and I have to say that I’ve never heard anyone explain it so well and show so much strength and conviction. Mary deserves the talkshow from Oprah, not Steve. At the very least I would love to see her situation get much more publicity than it has. Here is a woman who gave her all to a man for 16 years and got cheated on repeatedly, evicted, sued, and had custody of her son stripped from her by a rich and powerful man. It’s really sad, and it’s time she fought back.

Thanks to The YBF for the lead! The YBF also has that explicit letter that Mary intercepted.

Steve Harvey and Mary in 2000:

Steve Harvey and Marjorie in 2010. He’s probably cheating on her too.

Photo credit: PRPhotos