‘Before My Mother Lost Weight, She Was Loud. My Mother Was Fun’: Mo’Nique’s Son Shalon Says She Was a Different Person Before Husband Sidney Hicks Pushed Her to Became a Celebrity
Comedian Mo’Nique and her oldest son Shalon Watkins have made headlines for weeks after the two made a series of accusations against each other. Watkins has accused his mother of abandoning him during his times of struggle, while online critics slammed the mother of four for revealing her child’s mental health status online.
During a recent appearance on Kev Da Comic’s live show on TikTok, the 30-year-old also talked about the challenges he has had growing up with “The Parkers” star and her partner. Shalon said he liked his mother better when she was heavier, claiming that after she lost her marriage weight to Sidney Hicks she became a “celebrity.”
The host asked, “What do you like about your mom?”
Shalon responded, “To me there was a time in which — and … I wanna make sure I say this properly — before my mother lost weight, she was loud. My mother was fun.”
He continued to say that he didn’t know how to explain what he meant, but he and his cousin were recently talking about it and noted that Mo’Nique “didn’t become a celebrity until Sidney.”
“My mother was not bougie,” he said. “She wasn’t famous, at least not to me.”
The rising comedian said that he was even introduced at times to Mo’Nique, who was allegedly communicating clearly to him the distinction between the woman he knew and the one that the public knew.
“She was herself,” he said, adding a caveat, “But who am I to say that the person she is now is not herself. That’s not fair of me to say.”
Shalon and Mo’Nique have been estranged for years and seemingly don’t really know who each other, a point that D.L. Hughley exacerbated in several posts targeting the Oscar winner. He also added that she and “The Original Kings of Comedy” star inserted him into their drama — a supporting role he never wanted to be cast in.
In a recent Instagram Live, Hughley said, “Mo’Nique, you talked about how my children … Families are off-limits!”
“Let’s do this. Let’s decide that you will treat my children like you treat yours,” Hughley continued. “Like you don’t know them: invisible. Like you have no relationship with them. Like you’re estranged. Like you’re unfamiliar. Like you don’t know them.”
Referencing this exchange, Shalon said, “He’s literally talking about me.”
He later says, regarding not just his situation, but the climate of social media and pop culture, “I don’t believe in the idea that just because somebody talks publicly about something always gives someone else the entitlement that they too can speak on something publicly.”
Shalon was clear that while Hughley brought his relationship up with his mother in his swipe at the Baltimore native, it was she who put it out there to the world during her interview with Shannon Sharpe on “Club Shay Shay.”
On it, she said that she was praying to “The Universe” for her and Shalon to reconcile. He vehemently believes she is lying.
“When I made that video, that first video… I was just providing context to what was already being said. I didn’t add anything new,” he said to Kev.
He added, “There are years of interviews and articles where I am being addressed. The only reason why I said something that day was because there was a lie being told.”
The host interjected and asked him to share what he thought the lie was.
“The lie … was ‘I pray to The Universe for my son and I to come together,’” he said before adding it was a “false narrative,” because if she wanted to link with him she could have.
“Faith without works is dead,” Shalon said. “My mother is not the general manager of a Best Buy. She’s not a cashier at a Food Lion — no disrespect to that to those people. She’s not. She doesn’t drive a bus for a living. She has access to resources to show up at my front door within 60 minutes, if she wanted to. I’m exaggerating a bit, but you get my point.”
He then gave an example of how she had a tour date in Raleigh, North Carolina, and that she didn’t take the extra time out, approximately three hours, to visit him and his new family, to possibly reconcile, in Charlotte.
Mo'Nique responds to her son Shalon's TikTok videos, "F*ck that N*gga." pic.twitter.com/05c9e6vxeC
— The Savoy Show (@thesavoyshow) February 19, 2024
“I’m not asking you to drive that three hours for me. That’s a misconception,” the son said.
Kev interjected again, offering that her schedule might not have allowed for that.
“I don’t got time for all that, and here’s why I say that,” Shalon broke down. “I didn’t get a new house. I didn’t just get a new balcony put on my house. I didn’t go on vacation. I had a child. That’s something you fix your schedule for.”
In a previous video, Mo’Nique and Hicks claimed they had purchased a multitude of baby items for their granddaughter but never explain why they were not there for the child’s birth. Yet, text messages show they also accused Watkins of “putting your mother on hold” about seeing his daughter.
I don't think Mo'Nique realizes just how much this actually just affirmed virtually every point Shalon made in that video lol https://t.co/4mUjFHPfZ1
— Toxic Poz-itivity (@angryblkhoemo) February 13, 2024
While “The Queens of Comedy” star did not visit him while on tour, she was thinking about him. She incorporated their drama as a bit in her standup routine in a Feb. 17 show in New Jersey. In it, Mo’Nique joked that an old woman told her she was doing the right thing by checking her son.
The elderly woman told her, “F—k that n—ga.”
“She said, ‘I watched that s—t.’ I said, ‘Yes ma’am.’ She said, ‘I want to tell you something.’ I said, ‘Ma’am.’ She said, ‘F—k that n—ga,’” Mo’Nique said, ending the joke with this zinger.
“‘I’m 80 years old, and I got a son 60 years old, and every time they don’t get what he wants, he still tells me how f—ked up I was when he was 10 years old,’” the 56-year-old continued, recounting what the woman said that Mo’Nique was sound advice, and she was listening.
