Mo’Nique Remembers Her Thirteen-Year Battle With Lee Daniels, Saying “It’s a New Chapter”
Mo’Nique is prepared to end her 13-year battle with Lee Daniels and finally move on from the past. Following her Netflix special, “My Name Is Mo’Nique,” which marked her return to television, film, and stand-up comedy, the comedian sat down for an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, which was published on March 8 and looked back on the years of her career following her Oscar win in 2010 for Daniels’ “Precious,” the film that also precipitated their public fallout.
Before Mo’Nique’s big Oscars night in 2009, she allegedly declined to conduct full-court press for “Precious” since she wouldn’t be paid to promote it during award season, according to the comedian, according to THR. At the time, Mo’Nique was presenting a chat show on BET and wished to spend time with her husband Sidney Hicks, her sons Shalon, 32, and Jonathan and David, twins, 17, as well as her husband and manager. Mo’Nique apparently made a decision because the movie’s financier Lionsgate and executive producers Tyler Perry and Oprah Winfrey weren’t satisfied with it. As a result, she and Daniels didn’t talk for 13 years.
Both Mo’Nique and Daniels made statements in the media during that more than ten-year feud, outlining their own perspectives on how and why the conflict persisted for as long as it did. Mo’Nique said in a 2015 interview with THR that the film’s director “blackballed” her from working in Hollywood. She also made comparable charges against Perry and Winfrey, with whom she is currently at odds, alleging that they participated in the scheme.
At the time, Mo’Nique recalled, “One of the networks told [Lee] that I was’really tough to work with. “Whatever those people are who claim that Mo’Nique is difficult, they either lack compassion, are harsh, or treat others as if they are worthless. It’s also unacceptable.
That’s what Mo’Nique did throughout the years as she continued to speak out on numerous platforms about the rivalry and her treatment in Hollywood. That is, until Daniels publicly apologized to her in 2022 at a comedy gig in Staten Island, New York, and the two eventually put their differences behind them.