Comedian Kevin Hart spoke candidly with his longtime friend Will Smith in a Father’s Day “Red Table Talk” episode.
Hart spoke about being a dad during the intimate sitdown and addressed some things he isn’t proud to admit.
Smith invited Hart to come on the show to converse about stereotypes about Black fathers and shared his confessions about raising kids, Yahoo reported.
Hart fathers four children, daughters Heaven, 16, and Kaori, eight months, and two sons Hendrix, 13, and Kenzo, 3.
Hart took the time to also speak on the 2017 news that he stepped out on his wife Eniko Parrish, who was pregnant at the time.
“You’re never prepared for that side of it,” Hart said, recalling telling his children about what he did. “Having a little girl in my life, it’s tough. You don’t realize the impact that your mistakes can truly have. When the kids get involved, it’s a different feeling.”
He said the most challenging part was discussing the matter with his daughter, Heaven.
“My daughter was tough on me; until this day, my daughter is tough on me,” he said. “Getting my daughter to understand that I was sorry, that I made a mistake — that was real. Through my public debacles, I’ve got on some armor. It’s very hard to bother me. But when your child shows disappointment, shows emotion, shows, ‘I don’t understand why,’ and you’ve got to have those conversations — (your) head drops for the first time. You realize there’s an emotional cord that nobody else has the privileges of ever touching.”
He acknowledged that although he can brush off the critics and media, he understands that may not be so easy for his daughter.
“My daughter had a talk with me about her mother that rocked me. She checked me,” he recalled to Smith. “She said, ‘I want you to stop saying because when you say these things, Dad, this and this and this.’ ‘But honey, I don’t mean — I’m just talking.’ ‘It doesn’t matter, Dad.”
“It’s not just talking. … You unleash dogs on people,” Smith added.
“’But honey, I’m just being myself,'” Hart continued. “‘Dad, you can’t.’
Smith also recalled his similar experience with his ex-wife Sheree Zampino, with whom he shares son Trey, 28.
“(Sheree) would always say I had to be careful how I talked about our marriage and our divorce, and I didn’t realize. It really took me years to comprehend. She was like, ‘Whatever you say, the world is going to punish me for that, so you are giving people permission to say and do things to me on the street.”
Hart then switched the conversation to co-parenting with his ex-wife, Torrei Hart—who is also the mother of Heaven and Hendrix.
“I am very lucky to have two amazing mothers,” Hart said. “Me and my first wife, we’ve had our ups and downs. But we’re in a great space of understanding.”
As for blending families, Hart says, “You carry out your personal grudges,” Hart said. “Your personal grudges, whether you believe it or not, affect your kids. There’s an energy. You both have an energy. I’ve definitely made mistakes by participating in the bad energy. I went through the heavy phase of ‘I’m right, you’re wrong.’ You’re stubborn.”
The two have since worked hard on working towards a healthier post-divorce relationship.
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