Kevin Hart is gearing up to make a movie, but it is not like the blockbuster hits his fans are used to watching.
Instead, the comedian filed a lawsuit against his former assistant Miesha Shakes, Tasha “Tasha K” Kembe, and her company Yellen Entertainment for making “false and defamatory” claims that he cheated his wife, Eniko, multiple times and later attempting to blackmail him to not air the episode on Dec. 22, 2023.
Shakes was unapologetic when she had the tell-all interview, stating she believed it was “time for Hollywood to hear this story,” about her former boss. Tasha K ate it up and ran promo for the clip the week of the 2023 Christmas holiday, RadarOnline reported.
Hart, whose estimated net worth is $450 million, claims that Shakes, who worked for him from August 2017 to October 2020, not only invaded his personal life and misrepresented events she witnessed during her tenure, but also gave the interview to a podcaster that was willing to can it for a quarter of a million.
In November 2023, a month before the interview’s release on Tasha K’s website, Hart claimed he got a call from an unnamed person linked to Kebe. This individual allegedly demanded $250,000 to prevent the interview’s publication.
Soon after, Kebe was sent a cease-and-desist letter on November 22. She released a teaser video herself where she reportedly said, “When you don’t pay, we have to get money by any means necessary,” as cited in Hart’s complaint.
The lawsuit says that the “Lift” actor refused to pay for the interview to be trashed and is now suing Tasha K and her company for civil extortion.
While the interview went up, Hart wanted it to disappear and asked the courts to pull the interview. However, on Jan. 25 a request by the Hollywood entertainer to order Tasha K to take down a video was denied.
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Mitchell Beckloff sided with the controversial star in his ruling, stating, “I think the request is overbroad. The request is vague. I’m not sure what ‘any content relating to Kevin Hart’ is.”
On the episode of Tasha K’s show, “Unwine with Tasha K,” Hart’s former employee said her old boss cheated on his wife several times and had gotten one woman pregnant during his marriage.
She also accused Hart of having a gambling problem, and of making “a secret video recording of a romantic encounter [he] had in Las Vegas 2017 and that [her boss] faced criminal charges regarding that surreptitious recording.”
“Shakes made statements during the interview that were false, including that Hart recorded a video of a sexual encounter, and that he faced criminal charges regarding that supposed incident,” Hart’s lawyers wrote in the complaint.
Kevin Hart is suing Tasha K. Saying she tried to extort him. pic.twitter.com/dq2HZEkFQD
— BeyAnn Rimes (@0hbetave) December 28, 2023
In 2017, a sex tape involving Hart surfaced, leading to an alleged extortion attempt against him. Charges against the alleged extortionist were eventually dismissed. Montia Sabbag, the woman in the tape, later sued Hart. She claimed the actor either “negligently or intentionally authorized, allowed, and/or otherwise permitted” the filming of the sexual encounter.
“I did not record any such video, and I have never been criminally charged with doing so,” Hart declared.
The actor maintains that Shakes said things to the gossip maven that were “private information” that no one outside of his circle knew.
“For example, she spoke about my interactions with my wife during the time period after revelations regarding the Las Vegas incident had come to light,” the court filing quoted him as saying.
The statement added, “I understand from speaking with my security personnel, and Shakes admitted during the interview, that Shakes obtained some of the information she discussed in the interview by covertly listening through the walls, with her ear to the wall, to private interactions occurring behind closed doors at our offices.”
As a result, Hart said that the things said on camera by his ex-assistant harmed him both personally and professionally. The complaint states he suffered “damage to my reputation, and thus to my present and future business and financial prospects” and wants both parties to pay for this.
Many on social media believe that the airing of the episode disrupted his household, pointing to his wife’s Instagram where she wrote, “The level of ‘idgaf’ I reached this year is crazy.” A few online alleged that she was talking about the madness around her marriage.
Tasha K has petitioned the court to dismiss Hart’s lawsuit, disputing the comic’s claims and saying that the topics that she covered on the show were of public interest and maintaining that she didn’t act with malice.
Likewise, Shakes also asked that her lawsuit be dismissed, contending her NDA was in play during her interview and that nothing she said was defamatory.
This lawsuit is ongoing. But Hart has since vowed not to return to Las Vegas without his wife, to prevent another potential scandal that could wreck their marriage for good.
