Comedian Gary Owen says that he made some really great friends while filming and promoting the “Think Like A Man” franchise, but no one has showed up for him like fellow comedian Kevin Hart.
During his interview on Shannon Sharpe’s “Club Shay Shay” podcast, the Ohio native recalled first meeting Hart in 1998 when he was known as “Lil Kev,” but they worked closely between 2012 and 2014.
He mentioned that he personally experienced Hart’s generosity while working with him on the first film and the sequel based on Steve Harvey’s best-selling book of the same title. Owen affirmed that it’s just a reflection of the kind of person the blockbuster movie star is, noting how Hart has helped others in the industry with work opportunities.
He told Sharpe, “I’ve noticed on your show … I’ve seen there’s been a theme. Like Mo’Nique was down, Kev looked out. Amanda [Seales] was down, Kev looked out. I had dinner last night with a gentleman, he was like, ‘Yo, Kev took care of me … gave me a job when nobody else would give me a job.’ I was like ‘That’s three people.’”
Hart even had his back during Owen’s messy and costly divorce from his former wife of 18 years, Kenya Duke. The two divorced in 2021.
After hearing about the couple’s split, the “Comic View” standup said that he got a call from his Philadelphia pal.
“When my divorce happened, Kevin reached out and he goes, ‘You know, if you need any legal advice… need help financially … I know some of this stuff can get expensive … he was calling me,’” Owen remembered.
The 49-year-old said, “I’m a grown man. I ain’t gonna go to some other grown man for help. I’ll work it out, but then when she hit me with the $44,000, I did call him back,” jokingly saying, “You got a Jumanji residual check hanging around?”
During legal proceedings, Duke petitioned for $44,000 a month in spousal support, citing that she had a financial dependency on her ex-husband that prevented her from making enough money to sustain the lifestyle he had provided for her as his wife and mother of his three oldest kids for close to two decades.
Amidst their ongoing divorce, comedian Gary Owen’s estranged wife Kenya Duke is now reportedly asking for $44,000 a month in spousal support.
— Nael Grewther (@grewther) October 22, 2021
via: People
According to court documents obtained by PEOPLE, Duke, 46, initially filed for divorce in March and is now claiming tha… pic.twitter.com/D2Vo7R3EEY
The “Ride Along” actor, with an estimated net worth of $4 million, shared that he took a hit at the time, but can laugh about it now.
This is familiar territory for Hart who went through a tumultuous divorce with his first wife, Torrei Hart. The two married in 2003 and had two children before divorcing in 2011 due to the comedian’s cheating. He was reportedly ordered to pay her $175,000 in spousal and child support, even though Torrei initially requested $90,000, according to RadarOnline.
When talking about Hart, Owen described the comedian-turned-movie-star as a “solid” guy, noting that people bash him because he is “top of the food chain.”
One person who bashed Hart on the same platform at the beginning of the year was Katt Williams.
The “Pimpin’ Pimpin’” actor broke the internet with his “Club Shay Shay” interview in January, and he had choice words to say about Hart.
“In 15 years in Hollywood, no one in Hollywood has a memory of going to a sold-out Kevin Hart show,” Williams said, adding that he has never recalled there being a “line” out the door for Hart or him “receiving a standing ovation” at any comedy club. He then called the “Seriously Funny” comic an “industry plant,” suggesting that Hart had major “deals” before he arrived on the scene, dismissing his meteoric rise in the ranks of the industry.
While Hart and Williams are Owen’s friends, the comic played his commentary on both comics with a neutral tone. Just as he talked about Hart’s generosity, he gushed about how Williams “did one of the coolest things anybody ever did for me in my career.”
After performing in a show in Austin, Texas, in 2006 with the “First Sunday” actor, Owen said that he wanted to go out for the evening in the limo provided to take him from the Frank Erwin Center to his hotel. He said he attempted to ask the limo driver if he could extend his services for “a couple more hours.”
The driver agreed to do so but told him that it would cost him $300. Owen said the price was fine and commenced to give him the fee in cash. The driver would not take the money, claiming that it goes against company policy.
Because he was then married to Duke, he did not want to have to explain the extra fee on his personal credit card. Williams walked up, asked what the problem and intervened.
“Katt goes, ‘Hold on,’ and takes my driver around the back of his limo,” Owen explains. “Don’t know what they talked about. I don’t know how much money Katt gave that dude … but this was the whole conversation when he came back, he goes, ‘He’s yours for the evening, Gary. Enjoy your night, and, oh yes, they do accept cash.”
