Mo’Nique and her husband Sidney Hicks did not waste any time before responding to the comedian’s eldest son Shalon Watkins’ remarks refuting claims that she is actively seeking to mend their relationship.
Instead of directly addressing his 9-minute video response, the couple revealed that the 33-year-old suffers from “challenges with mental illness” and that people should not race to judgment.
Mo’Nique and Hicks also said that they loved the young man and have tried to help him over the years — including helping him when his daughter was born and giving him money to help him get the car that he currently has.
Watkins read from his notes on the TikTok video and claimed that he never had a meaningful relationship with his mother. According to the estranged son, he was primarily raised by his mother’s assistant while she and her husband prioritized their two biological children and her son from her second marriage.
He further claimed that Hicks never acknowledged him as his stepchild and that their actions suggest they value money over love in their interactions with him. Consequently, Watkins expressed his desire to dispel what he claims are the lies that his mother put out in her “Club Shay Shay” podcast interview when she said she intends to seek reconciliation with him.
“Neither one of us cares to put forth any effort to reconcile with the other. We are ‘separate,’ as she put it, because she doesn’t care to be my mother any more than I care to be her son,” Watkins said.
The “Precious” star, whose parenting skills came under scrutiny stemming from her reignited beef with fellow comedian D.L. Hughley, promptly addressed her son’s comments.
“There are some people that are saying ‘Oh, you should be ashamed of your mothering skills, you should be ashamed of yourself.’ This is what I’ll say, let’s let it play out,” Mo’Nique said. “Because the same ones that said to me [that] I was crazy, I was deranged, we watched it play out. So just like with my son, we’ll watch this play out.”
The Academy Award winner also directly confronted her son, condemning him for referring to her husband of 17 years, who had been her best friend since before their marriage, as “her daddy.”
“When you say her daddy … You know this has been Uncle Sid your whole life,” she said, referencing the lengthy relationship, ignoring the underline diss in the statement, and adding that he knew her son before he was born.
She continued, “So, for you to say, ‘Her three sons,’ yes you’re absolutely right, he has three sons. He can’t claim you as his son because he’s always been Uncle Sid and he knows your daddy very well.”
Hicks chimed in and talked about not only knowing Watkins’ father but asserted that he, the father — Dallas Morning News sportswriter Calvin Watkins, who is Mo’Nique’s first husband — and Mo’Nique all have a great relationship that is rooted in their love for the son.
“Parents that raise their children into adulthood know that there comes a time and a place in which they determine their own decisions… their own path,” Hicks said about their decision to let Watkins go on his own without chasing him down.
Another issue that seemed to come up was Watkins’ communication skills and how poorly he has spoken in the past to his mother. Hicks mentioned the last time he communicated with him, saying, “Read the last text message that I gave to you Shalon, where I told you about the understanding of how you are speaking to a woman. And how you as a man … perceive things may be completely different from how your wife, how your mother, how your sister, how your daughter will look at things.”
“When you learn how to communicate a little bit better then things will happen a little bit better,” he said before adding, “Because of the challenges that this young brother has had with mental illness … we’re communicating that out loud to speak to our community.”
Social media chimed in blasting the couple and siding with the son.
“He didn’t seem to have mental health problems to me,” one person commented. Another wrote, “If that’s not his biological child he shouldn’t even be in the video let alone saying something.”
One Instagram user wanted the comedian and her husband/manager to put an end to the soap opera.
“Listen, yall ain’t about to have all our timelines in the family feud! Get off live and go to him!” she said, adding, “This is a lot of unnecessary talking in circles come on @therealmoworldwide just go to your son and get that right. This is ugly.”
As the Live continued, Mo’Nique and her husband shared that it was important for them to have public conversations about “private issues” as a tool to heal.
The couple emphasized that within the Black community, there’s often a reluctance to engage in difficult conversations due to fear of judgment from white people. However, they asserted that this fear hinders true freedom, implying that their willingness to address concerns publicly stems from their fearlessness and true love for their people, including those like Oprah Winfrey, Tyler Perry, Stephen A. Smith, and even Mo’Nique’s son.
On Feb. 14, Watkins called out his mother and Hicks for their lack of “accountability” in another TikTok video, adding that Hicks did more talking than Mo’Nique in their video.
He laid into Mo’Nique for allowing her “daddy” Hicks to use his mental status as a “weak attempt to pass my response off as a moment.” He said it’s “disturbing and insulting to us who do have mental health issues.”
His mother went a step further and shared text messages from 2020-2021 that appear to be from her son. The exchange shows “The Queens of Comedy” star reaching out to Shalon saying, “Hey baby. Just checking on you,” at least twice and other messages that suggest the two exchanged phone calls in between. On two separate dates, Mo’Nique responded, “Hey my baby, I’m going to call you when you get back home. We out with …” “Give me a couple of hours to call.”
The screenshots also show Shalon asking his mother to help pick out a flower arrangement, notifying her of his “to-do list” to get his license, and inquiring if she knew about hyperhidrosis, which is an excessive sweating disorder. Mo’Nique replied on the same day, stating that she would do research on it, though the next exchange doesn’t take place between the two until three days later.
“Hey my baby. Sorry I missed your call. Can we talk tomorrow. Call me when you go on break if you can. Love you,” Mo’Nique wrote on Feb. 25, 2021.
The post also shows her sharing encouraging messages with Shalon, who on more than one occasion, said “Love Yall” or asked “How yall doing this morning,” referring to his mom and her husband.
Between Oct. 16-17, Shalon texted his mother twice but she did not respond until Oct. 18, stating, “Hey sweet baby. I haven’t forgot I’m just trying to get myself together.”
The last message Mo’Nique shared in her post appears to be from her husband to Shalon and speaks to the poor communication skills Hicks discussed in their video. “Remember today, and this is Uncle Sid. If you don’t change your immature ways you’re going to lose man. We can’t be mad at you but we’re definitely sad for you,” read the text.
Hicks appears to scold Watkins for “putting your mother on hold” about seeing his daughter but it’s unclear when this message was sent.
He then wrote, “Interesting, you’re a man now but you were a little boy just days ago as you needed me to walk you through getting a car.”
Mo’Nique has previously admitted that she chose her career over motherhood back in 2020. Watkins was 30 at the time when she said, “There was a time that when he was a little boy I wasn’t interested in being a mother. I was interested in being a star, and I was interested in being famous, and I wasn’t interested in being a wife.”
She continued, “I was interested in taking pictures and red carpets and signing autographs and traveling the world so I really didn’t put the focus in.”
Watkins claims he never asked for money but he thought his celebrity mom was helping out of the kindness of her heart. He also mentioned that he was “homeless” at one point and Mo’Nique failed to assist when he asked for help.
