Mo’Nique reignited her longtime feud with Oprah Winfrey, whom she said “betrayed” her.
“See, when I speak about Oprah Winfrey — and let me be clear I love that sister — I speak about that woman because she’s spoken about me,” she said on Shannon Sharpe’s “Club Shay Shay” podcast Wednesday.
“And when you begin to speak about me privately, I’m going to speak about you publicly,” she added.
“You’ve been unfair, you’ve been unjust and you watched a Black woman be thrown under the bus and you said nothing.”
Mo’Nique, 56, recalled in 2010 when she won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for her role in “Precious.”
At the time, the “Parkers” alum claimed her husband, Sidney Hicks, told her that Winfrey, 70, was visibly bothered that the crowd was screaming for Mo’Nique instead of her.
After that moment, the comedian said she noticed that movie roles that were offered to her ended up going to the “Color Purple” star.
“The movie ‘The Butler,’ that movie was offered to me,” she said, adding that the film’s director, Lee Daniels, confirmed that he offered her the role as well.
“He said, ‘Mo, at the time I didn’t have no power and I didn’t have no money, so when Oprah said she wanted it … So who played the lead role in ‘The Butler?’ Oprah Winfrey.”
Mo’Nique claimed that the same thing happened again in a Richard Pryor biopic that Daniels offered her a role as the grandmother.
“Who then calls Lee Daniels and says, ‘I want to be the grandmother?'” she continued.
Aside from Winfrey allegedly taking roles from the “Almost Christmas” star, Mo’Nique also had an issue with the billionaire mogul for interviewing her brother Gerald Imes, who admitted to molesting her as a child.
The “Charm School” alum explained that Winfrey called to tell her that Imes asked to be on “The Oprah Winfrey Show” so he could apologize to Mo’Nique for what he did to her.
However, Mo’Nique, who had just won her Oscar, said she “didn’t want anything to do” with her brother or the interview.
Winfrey offered to drop the show altogether, but the stand-up comedian encouraged her not in case her brother had changed or wanted to share a positive lesson.
When the show moved forward, Mo’Nique learned in a commercial that her parents, who she didn’t get along with, were also being interviewed along with Imes.
“We never talked about my mother being there,” Mo’Nique told Sharpe.
“I understand it. But you betrayed me, sister.”
Pvnew has reached out to Winfrey’s rep for comment but did not immediately hear back.
If you or someone you know is affected by any of the issues raised in this story, call the Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-330-0226.
