Why Steve Harvey Doesn’t Exactly Enjoy Being a Grandfather: ‘I Just Don’t Get It’

Steve Harvey welcomed his fifth grandchild in September and while most grandparents love to spend lots of time with their grands, the comedian is not exactly one of them.

Harvey explained as much during a stop on “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” Monday, Dec. 10 noting that wife Marjorie Harvey adores when the kids come over but he responds “damn” when he hears they’re on their way.

“My grandkids, they test me all the time,” he says. “I’m not as happy as most grandparents are. I don’t really get it. … My wife is really into this grandparent thing so she lets them stay over at the house and I told her, ‘That’s not how this is supposed to work.’ They supposed to come over and then go home.”

He then chatted about his youngest grandson, Ezra, who is three months old but Harvey said he had “no idea” about his age.

“I haven’t played with him yet,” he says. “I don’t like ’em when they don’t have head control … I don’t like playing with kids with no head control. Hold your head — hold your damn head up, boy! You got to put them two fingers back there and then it slide off. You feel responsible for ’em.

“I need a couple of words too. I don’t like … you know that stage where they don’t do nothing,” Harvey adds of what he dislikes about young grandkids. “They just little blobs. I don’t care for that. So wait on them to where they can say, ‘Papa! If he say that, then, I’ll play with him. Other than that, I disown him.”

Fans responded to the star’s joking remarks in the comments section.

“That’s just a sign of selfishness. Not getting into being a grandparent. I know, my mom is like that.”

“He’s hilarious!! I bet those grand babies have him wrapped around their fingers!!!! LOL😂😂😂😂”

Harvey has hilariously made it clear he’s not the biggest fan of grandfatherhood before. When Ezra was born, he said on “Steve” that he likes to be able to get some alone time with his wife, but that can’t happen if grandbabies are spending the night.

“I wanna be an empty nester. Now they come back to the house and they got some more people with ’em,” he said of his kids visiting with their children. “They always bring ’em over and drop ’em off. And I’m going ‘Now, I been talking to my girl all day long. All we been talking about was what was gon’ happen tonight. Then, I get to the house and here they is!”

Democracy needs journalism it can trust.

This election season, the stakes are higher than usual — and so is the pressure on newsrooms to soften their coverage, stay quiet, or just disappear. Independent reporting, the kind that answers to readers instead of advertisers or political pressure, matters more in a moment like this, not less.

For over 14 years, Atlanta Black Star has stayed independent and reader-funded. We have no corporate owner and no shareholders telling us what to cover or how to cover it. That independence is also our biggest vulnerability: nothing protects it except readers choosing to fund it directly.

Newspaper ad revenue has fallen more than 80% since 2005, and local newsrooms are closing at a rate of roughly two a week nationwide. When outlets go under in a moment like this, it's rarely the independent, reader-funded ones that get to stick around.

We know a request for support isn't why you came here. But without readers choosing to fund this work directly, the depth of reporting we can do at home and abroad shrinks along with everyone else's. If you're not in a position to give, that doesn't change how much we value you as a reader.

If you are able to, a recurring contribution does more for us than a single one-time gift, because it lets us plan the next investigation instead of just the next invoice. It takes about 30 seconds, no long form, no account. Thank you for continuing to support independent journalism and freedom of the press.

Back to top