Queen Latifah Remembers The Time Cicely Tyson “Checked” Her Fondly

Queen Latifah has a memory of Cicely Tyson that stands out more than others: Tyson “checked” for speaking too casually. On Monday, the Equalizer star shared her experience with the legendary actress on the People Every Day podcast.

The interaction happened on a 2014 episode of The Queen Latifah Show with special guests Tyson, Vanessa Williams, and Blair Underwood. 

“I was doing my talk show and was happy and excited, but nervous,” she said. “And I saw this question pop up on my prompter, and I knew that I wasn’t supposed to read the question the way it was written before I even got it out. And it was something like, ‘So do you guys, so-and-so?'”

Queen Latifah realized her faux pas as soon as the words left her mouth. Tyson pointed them out immediately, responding, “Wait a minute. I’m not ‘you guys.'”

The host quickly apologized to her guest, saying, “‘Excuse me, Ms. Tyson, you are absolutely right. I apologize. My bad. I’m so sorry.'”

“I [wasn’t] raised that way. I was raised better than that. So I knew before it was even out of my mouth, I knew,” Queen Latifah added.

Knowing she was wrong, Queen Latifah took the correction in stride.

“I appreciated that she did that because you are never too big to get checked. You know what I mean? And some people think they’re too big to get checked,” she said. “If you’re wrong, you’re wrong, and I was wrong. And she let me know that was inappropriate, and I appreciated her letting me know that because it just brought me back.”

Tyson passed away in January at the age of 96.