Steve Harvey may not be able to account for every dollar he banks, but he absolutely knows how many children he is responsible for.
The comedian and his third and current wife, Marjorie Harvey, have a blended family of seven. The author of “Think Like A Man, Act Like A Lady” fathered twin daughters Karli and Brandy and a son named Broderick with his first wife, Marcia Harvey. The pair divorced in 1994.
Three years later, in 1997, he welcomed a son named Wynton with his second wife, Mary Shackelford, whom he divorced in 2005. When he married his longtime sweetheart Marjorie in 2007, he adopted her three children, daughters Morgan and Lori, and son Jason.
But unbeknownst to Steve, for years there was a woman who had been claiming that he had fathered a child with her. The unexpected tale of his alleged illegitimate child came to light during an episode of his former daytime talk show.
During an “Ask Steve” segment, a woman in the audience admitted to the host that for almost 20 years she had routinely lied about him being her daughter’s absent father. “She took it to heart,” said the woman about her then-17-year-old daughter.
Stupefied by her admission, Steve asked her, “Where you going with this? Lady, I don’t even know you.” The lady continued, “She looks just like you. She looks more like you than she does her dad.” Yet Steve remained adamant that not a single trace of his genetic composition could be found in the girl’s face.
On my #morninginspiration I talked about leaving a legacy. Here's mine- my wife, 7 children, 4 grandkids #blessed pic.twitter.com/alrFVxP72D
— Steve Harvey (@IAmSteveHarvey) September 23, 2016
“You can show a picture. I ain’t got no more kids. I can tell you that right now,” he quipped. “And I don’t know you, lady. I ain’t never met you before,” he uttered as a photo of the teenager appeared on the screen behind him.
Immediately after looking at the image, the audience erupted into laughter as he disagreed about them looking alike. Still, the woman pressed forward with her question, “So can I continue to tell people you her dad?”
With his arms crossed, “The Original Kings of Comedy” comic decreed, “Hell nah, you can’t keep telling her that! Tell this girl the truth. Tell her who her real dad is. Got me set up like, ‘How come he don’t never come around.’ Now I’m a d—n deadbeat dad.”
But Steve wasn’t done unleashing his response to the outlandish claim that had viewers and the woman caught up in fits of laughter. He continued, “Why are you on the show? That’s what I want to know. You thought this was a good idea?…I’m not this little girl daddy!”
In between chuckles, the woman egged him on by saying, “We did good.” “She ain’t my baby. She don’t really look like me…She look like you and her daddy. That’s who she look like,” said the “Family Feud” host.
“She tried to turn that episode into a Maury show!” read a viewer reaction when the clip was shared on Facebook. Someone else wrote, “You have money everybody wants to be related to you.”
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The resurfaced clip comes months after former audience member Wendy Davis became the subject of a viral TikTok trend. Davis, who works as a flight attendant, appeared on the show in 2014 when she infamously wore a blue dress and did her beast twerk and shimmy moves in front of Steve during his Q&A segment.
The question that sparked a million laughs was whether or not he thought she had what it would take to quit her daytime job to pursue dancing online. His reaction made it clear that she should stick to earning sky miles. In May, Davis revealed that producers prepped her with the off-the-wall inquiry as an opportunity to showcase Steve’s comedic chops.
Steve’s role as a father also came under fire this summer. While sharing photos of his and Marjorie’s 18th wedding anniversary trip, fans realized his daughters, Karli and Brandi, were not included in family photos. Instead, only Broderick, Wynton, and Lori were present.
However, the two women have followed in their father’s footsteps by remaining booked and busy. Both are entrepreneurs and Brandi, on top of running businesses, is also a mother to a son.
