When Tiffany Haddish was a little girl, after her father abandoned the family and left her with a mother struggling with mental health, she was bullied in school because her mom didn’t know how to do her hair right and she had a big mole, or what she called a “horn,” on her forehead.
Haddish began cutting the mole herself — right in the classroom.
The kids would go “Tiffany’s bleeding! Oh my God, oh my God she cut her horn off!,” Haddish wrote in her 2017 bestseller, “The Last Black Unicorn.”
These days, it looks as if Haddish, who rose from the ashes of a nightmarish childhood to become one of Hollywood’s hottest comedians and actresses, is hurting herself again — with her second DUI arrest in two years, last week.
Haddish, who turns 44 on Dec. 3, was caught on video being taken away in handcuffs after she was found slumped over the wheel of her car at 5:45 a.m. Nov. 24 in the middle of Beverly Drive, Beverly Hills Police said.
She got back on stage the very next day at the Laugh Factory in Long Beach, Calif., and joked about the incident.
“As soon as I heard it, I said ‘goddamn, I’m glad she’s okay,'” a close friend of Haddish told The Post.
“But it seems weird to me. You would think that someone would have a driver in that situation. This is tough because there’s nothing anybody’s gonna say to take away that this is her second offense.
“The way people look at drinking and driving. Hopefully there’s a lesson to be learned. If people want to be critical, I say f–k that — you don’t know what a person is going through. You don’t know what’s troubling a person.”
“Not gonna lie… I’ve been partying all night. I’ve been partying all morning… I can still feel the Ciroc (vodka) in my system,” she said.
Her performance that night was a disaster. Her jokes, the ones she could recall, fell flat and the audience began to heckle and boo her. In response she pulled out a bottle of vodka and drank onstage while asking the patrons to tell jokes.
After the Miami debacle, Haddish seemed to be on an upswing. She began dating the rapper and actor Common in 2020 and said it “felt safest out of all the relationships [she’s] ever had.”
“I’m tired of being nice to y’all raggedy ass mother-f—kers!” she shrieked. “I’m just tired of people playing with me.”
Haddish and her reps did not respond to calls from The Post. Tracy Oliver, the co-writer of “Girls Trip” who has said “Girls Trip 2” is in the works, was not reachable.
Haddish’s has also said that she’d secretly suffered eight miscarriages over the years. But she explained that she kept it to herself so no one would feel sorry for her.
“I don’t want people saying: ‘Are you okay? Are you all right?’ Like a wounded animal, I just rather go in a cave by myself. Lick my wounds.”
But concerned friends and industry insiders say she has to come out and face what’s happened.
Veteran entertainment journalist and TV producer Brian Balthazar, who’s also long had a foothold in standup comedy, said that Haddish can right her ship — if she’s smart and strategic.
“We live in a world that simultaneously embraces cancel culture, but also loves a redemption story,” Balthazar told The Post. “So where does Tiffany fall in that spectrum? There’s the justice system and there is the court of public opinion, and they can yield wildly different results.
“You don’t have to look far to see there is actually a pretty sizable list of celebrities who have been charged with one or more DUIs in the past.”
“It doesn’t necessarily mean an end to your career,” he added. “But Tiffany’s next move is really important.
“Tiffany Haddish is incredibly talented and funny. If she’s quick to address the situation and does it properly, I believe she can overcome this and continue on with a very successful career.
