Back in May, TIffany Haddish’s ex-husband filed a lawsuit against her over her claims of abuse detailed in her memoir, “The Last Black Unicorn.”
In the suit, obtained by TMZ, William Stewart said a chapter in Haddish’s book, titled, “The Ex-Husband,” painted him as an abuser, and the possible reason for the death of her unborn child. Although Haddish never mentioned Stewart by name, he said he was the only person Haddish was ever married to, which made him easily identifiable. As a result, he demanded upwards of $1 million in damages for defamation, libel and slander.
Now, two months later, amid the ongoing case, Stewart says he tried to reach a settlement with both Haddish and the book publisher, Simon & Schuster, before he went public with his lawsuit.
In new docs obtained by The Blast, Stewart says his lawyers sent several letters with details and receipts in his defense, in an attempt to resolve the “harmful and defamatory assertions.” In the letters, he addressed Haddish’s claim that she had a temporary restraining order against him during their marriage, alleging it was dropped after “Ms. Haddish recanted the allegations in the TRO and pled with law enformcent to dismiss the TRO because it was untrue. In fact, she confessed to attacking Mr. Stewart.”
Stewart also denied Haddish’s claims of abuse, highlighting a 2012 interview with Dom Irrera where she said Stewart never beat her. According to The Blast, he says she made a joke that “he never beat me up, he just choked me a little bit,” which Stewart says she often enjoyed.
“Furthermore, we have information that will demonstrate Ms. Haddish regularly requested Mr. Stewart to become more aggressive with her during sex, including, among other things, to choke her as a part of their sexual intercourse,” the lawyers wrote in the letter, adding Stewart has audio evidence of Haddish “seeking the guidance of a psychic to help with her erratic and violent tendencies toward Mr. Stewart, not vice versa.”
“Mr. Stewart did not commit criminal domestic violence, nor did he abuse Tiffany Haddish during their marriage,” the letter read in conclusion. “He did not abandon his daughter. These assertions can never be unsaid and Mr. Stewart’s reputation has been irreparably damaged.”
