Jenifer Lewis Talks Self Awareness, Mental Illness, Sex Addiction + More

[Music] you're watching The Breakfast Club [Music] morning everybody is DJ envy Angela Yee Sharla Mimi God We Are The Breakfast Club you got a special guest in the building the black mother Hollywood good I'm good I've been traveling around the country a lot you know touring you know Florida went over to the parkland talked to the Parkland kids hmm just left Detroit went over to Flint talked to the water warriors it's just not a book - I'm trying to do something out here you know you really are they're putting in that work huh oh yeah you know black issues on hiatus oh we just got picked up for fifth season Bowie drago's stay together uh-uh y'all just got to keep watch for fifth season obviously I do love that you started the book talking about going getting on blackish and just basically you all must be tired yeah I was about to retire I didn't get oranges I auditioned for oranges a new black and my girlfriend and Lorraine Toussaint got it I auditioned for getting on on HBO my good friend niecy Nash got and I was like okay this um I was out in my yard but you know I love them and I'm always happy for the people you know I work so - come on now got more talented in my little toe than anyone I'm kidding not my peers - think I think I'm better than everybody but I do yeah so I was sitting in my backyard you know I come from poverty so I saved my money mm-hmm so I wouldn't have to need too much you know what I mean I'm an alpha female so anyway what the [ __ ] was I yeah so I this happened to me y'all this happened to me and this is real I was pruning my roses and I said I'm gonna I'm gonna retire I walked over to a 25-cent wheelbarrow that I had bought at a garage sale and it's full of geraniums and I said out loud I never talk in my garden and I say it out loud not even me can stop me mm mm mm I gave up many times in my life but I didn't quit you gotta be in it to win it you got to stay up I wrote that book for the Millennials because I saw him lay down in the streets mmm now I want y'all to get up stay up but there's a beat they miss hmm just a beatin you got to feel your feelings hmm if you feeling hopeless feel that if you feeling whatever you're feeling feel your feelings then move hmm cuz you'll carry the rage with you you'll carry the confusion with you you'll carry the chaos with you and then we don't get anything done feel your feelings they are shooting our babies yeah I heard you you're very passionate you feel like all the players should be kneeling I want them to all go down at the same time if you take away America's fun these are the great warriors of our time these are the gladiators you got to go down no great-great-great-great grandmother went down on two knees and her hands she wasn't just picking cotton she was raped while she was doing it so with the ABC episode of black-ish said they didn't air which was about their de kneeling there you know I got to tell you something I wasn't around all of that so I'm not gonna speak to it because I don't know what happened but we all know what happened it was too much it could have been you know the temperature and temperament of the country where it might have been too delicate but I don't understand ABC is you know let us say everything else and address all these you know needed modern-day issues and that people can walk away from the television and sit down and discuss there's a lot of depression in this country you know the N word police brutality can you bare assists at the helm of the show he's brilliant he's a young genius I admire him so much so I don't really know what happened with Disney or ABC but with what's going on in this country right now they might want to speak to it all and if it was about the kneeling let me tell you something these basketball football baseball I don't care what you play you are a gladiator we pay your rent you have to honor what's going on they pulling our babies over and blowing their heads off mm-hmm they shooting them in the church they shooting them at concerts and you gonna run around and throw a ball I hit a ball and think I'm pulling your son over mm-hmm-hmm I don't care who you wit I don't care if you with a white woman the baby might look white you got a inch of black blood a black and they gonna kill them your sons and your daughters they don't care anymore and you go to work and throw a ball around and white folks and every other kind of folks cheering for you mm-hmm how you go to bed when your son is out in the street going to the club oh come on children yeah you got to be some kind of thing let's get to it now look I just talked to what's-his-name you saw me talking to him what's that baby okay and he said cuz I want to do it right cuz I'm getting ready to go in you going y'all ain't seen me this book is allowing me to say anything and do anything I want why is that because I laid my burden down and I told it all so you can't touch me no more and I saved my money there you go so don't come for me there you go I could say anything I told my good friend Maxine Waters I told him that city waters you know we from the same hometown hmm you know she can't cuss I can sometimes f uck gets the attention of the millennium well how much money do you need did you have a baron David what did you was that couple well he was kind of brilliant in his own way he said you know cuz I'm I'm like what's wrong with child cuz they killing yo B they pulling your sons and daughters over and blowing their brains out y'all we got to say it just like that yeah yeah hey Lynch two babies down south the other day didn't it yeah just remembered their bodies you see what's going on in the Waffle House's all throughout the country what happened with the waffles I've been on the road the police beat up a woman in the ICU they beat her up in the Waffle House suppose the young lady's name shouldn't every name anybody got from the prom remember I went to the prom beat up the guy in the prom I want to know what they beat up in the Waffle House what do you say that she was being unruly no from the video we saw she was just like sitting there wondering why they was messing with her but it was really bad it was really bad yes yes see that we all need to take a meet wherever we are mm-hmm yeah I'll better speak out what are you gonna do let the people who were on the front line of the 60s that took those dogs and hoses and you gonna ride around in your big car and do nothing mmm I just got back from South Africa I saw where he was for 27 years Mandela yes sir Nelson Mandela gone look up his picture on the Internet come on off the phone Millennials are day to go look at Mandela's picture his shoulders were fragile that's what you're standing on your little shits I feel like you always was like this even before money though I don't feel like you needed a bunch of money to say [ __ ] no I'll let walk out on Angela Davis his birthday when I was in high school I didn't even know nothing about it but she had an afro I said let's get the [ __ ] out of here because I said they'd give us George Washington's birthday our let's go oh so you really you hold all black school I said let's go let's get Annie Angela Davis birthday let's go as I knew she was doing something right hmm have you letter of course you kiddin I met everybody cuz I'm famous but you know I roll up i don't play y'all I came to slay we know I didn't fly 3,000 miles to tiptoe through the tulips with somebody I go in and Detroit I went in I go in on stage I talk about depression I talk about mental illness I talked about molestation I talk about abortions I talk about it all see once you tell it you free can't nobody do nothing to me now yeah you live your truth so nobody can use your truth again thank you what made you decide to write this memoir and tell all these stories because it is something that as I was reading it I read so many memoirs for men who tell all of these stories about themselves but it's very rare that I read women telling stories like this I wrote this book first of all for me but then I wrote it for the next generation because I want them to know that no matter what you can come through the fire you got to love yourself if you want to come through the fire hmm I have an expression I say love yourself so that love will not be a stranger when it comes and it will come if you take care of yourself self care I'm stressing self-care out on the road tell all in black women stop eating fried chicken every day you talk about it in the book you see ya chicken every day but you gotta stop you gotta get sick and tired of being sick and tired hmm you got to stop you know sitting in those rooms you know I was by I'm bipolar bipolar still I have to take my men my daughter was like you got your man said I want to talk about it I got it in this morning I don't know why I'm so angry this morning I guess because I've been out here and when I saw those basketball players I got mad at him like y'all ain't doing I didn't get mad at them I got mad at all of it mmm you can't let that man kneel by himself Colin Kaepernick yes you can't we got to stand together y'all I know it sounds you know but united we stand divided we fall and we will fall under this administration when did you first realize you had a bipolar disorder well okay so here it is real fast the book born and raised in poverty I'm the baby of seven children so I didn't get a lot of attention so I spent my childhood going see me see me and then that turned into see me see me that lasted a long time and then it turned into the deep oh you don't see me [ __ ] and they saw me but look at this no you get tired it's a mask I mean I was talented at hell and and I had a good heart but I was sick mmm and I didn't want to admit it so they came down after I got my ass in therapy I went to therapy and they started coming down and then you get to this thing of surrender so it's a journey y'all it's called the journey within that's what my friend said to me she said Jenny there's no greater journey than the journey within I with her journey with it sounded exciting so I took it so I opened up my palms and I educated myself and now y'all want to know what my hands are doing what are you doing accent from a little small town called kinloch Missouri all black it was one of the first all-black self-governed townships in America so I was born and raised there you see so this little town sits on the border of Ferguson Missouri oh come on now so even as a little girl I was warned never to go to Ferguson alone so when it exploded I wasn't surprised mm-hmm but see and here is the power in the glory Ferguson had a movie theater and kinloch did not you think I was gonna let white folks back there keep me from my dream I would go over there every Saturday morning my mother would've killed me if she no not go over there get my little popcorn set up in the balcony and imagine myself on the silver screen Hey and now sixty-eight movies later four hundred and think it's 52 episodic television shows for Broadway shows and concerts all over the world don't with me I was gonna ask you you know did you feel like the bipolar handed you any in the business but clearly not did it well here's the thing the mania understand bipolar is manic behavior that's that cousin at the family reunion up on top of the table drunk cousin with his pants down so that's bipolar you don't have to go and say you think you bipolar he's bipolar the other polar is depression mm-hmm now listen very carefully to me I know y'all might edit this these long pauses no I love long pause it's to remind it's too important oh yeah I've never been dramatic a day in my life alright because I want to bipolar disorder the mania is the rush it's dangerous it's Rachel and it's out of control it worked for me on stage C you know Robin Williams you know all of us you know go on hit the mouse now okay but baby when the curtain comes down mmm oh you want to talk black and dark and sad and lonely you hide in a dark room mmm eat yourself to death sleep yourself to death get high yourself to death and then you missed that one line in the Constitution the pursuit of happiness so what sustained me was having a passion the dream sustained me see I had to get up and go to dance class I had to get up go to acting class I have an honorary Doctor degree from my alma mater Webster University in st. Louis Missouri I had to get up and go to movement class I can still kick my foot over my head my music [ __ ] you ain't said a word get this [ __ ] I know I get it get my kick from the saw okay goddammit you ready one I'm gonna give you three one two Oh y'all I have so much sex up in the sex addiction I didn't know mm-hmm you know I just been in my 20s early 30s I'm not gonna lie whenever I hear guys say that I always think it's [ __ ] I'm just like man to say you was cheating you like bugging but you know what when I was reading the book before you even said that I was like yeah because it seemed like you didn't feel like you were complete unless you had some bad no it was a need it was yeah this was a drug what it felt like I had to have that right after I came off stage I get me a good-looking man he was my type you liked him read boys yeah the fro back then you know pretty lips girl that was her imma get you love no he doesn't look like Miguel let me see if anybody need look like Miguel Miguel was Dominican he had your skintone little lighter and he was I am NOT Dominican he's a man that you wouldn't think would have been the love of my life when he was brilliant mm-hmm it was a mathematician met him in New York I know I met him in college I met him when I was a freshman and he was working on his second master's degree and then he got his PhD in math he was brilliant and he was sweet and he was very spiritual and I was fascinated with him and he called me a yennefer call me and he said something to me when I used to walk around New York I was on Broadway but you know I was out of my skin you know you got to get in your skin you got through a line you got to know who you are if you want to be happy then can't nothing get on you you see people can't come for me no more you can't come for me I'm like Morpheus bring that [ __ ] on over here what you got come here Metin you never heard before and then you know about yourself yeah I tell people I've had my in the Sun now I am the Sun there you go roll up on me you'll blow a fuse don't roll up on me unless you leading with love cuz I do that every day I ain't perfect my [ __ ] stinks but I try to lead with love that's enough being bipolar and depressed for 33 years let me tell you something when you get free of that and you learn who you are you want to live I ain't got no more time to waste I'm 61 I got about 30 more summers left you think you get one you don't get none of my summers and I speak metaphorically don't roll up in only with stress go calm yourself down breathe ten times take ten deep breaths now I know that's a cliche but take them anyway and see what happens now before you started like going to therapy and stuff your bipolar was the big therapeutic was that was oh yeah well the dick was the drug are you kidding no I'm s and when you bipolar you then you got multiple orgasms coming I would come was it like a relationship bikal wasn't just random dick yep I had them all but I was selective I wasn't no damn fool I was gonna be a star I couldn't say I [ __ ] her ass leopard that's a star I was gonna be a star I can't say I was I couldn't sleep with everybody everybody couldn't say they slept with me and that did tame me it did once again it was the dream that stopped me from being killed mmm I had the knife to my throat yeah it was the greatest performance of my life I talked myself out and this was just some boy coming off the street he'd seen me in the paper with a white bikini on I was on page six of the poster didn't daily news it's all in the in the book oh yeah please tell that was a horrifying experience we don't win we don't want to go in that y'all read the book about the boy put another life in the knife at my throat I talked myself out of rape mmm and when I went to my friends forced me to go to the police station because when something like that happens to you even though I was rape you're traumatized you are you are yeah but listen y'all I'm all over the place but listen the boy came into my house with a knife ooh remember that [ __ ] right now hmm y'all have talked about it not at all I'm just gonna give you a little bit of it it was the greatest performance of my life talking myself out of it he event he cried and he said I just got out of jail and they put me in for something I didn't do and he just wanted to hurt somebody mm-hm he wasn't mean he was he didn't come in like this cuz I'd have kicked his ass you know you come come for me I'm coming back I don't it ain't that much medication in the world hmm understand what I'm saying I went to therapy for 17 years twice a week mmm because I wanted to live you spend 33 years in depression hurting yourself I didn't one-one all those men on me come on I want to love myself I wanted to enjoy my success I was a Broadway star got no business running around picking up guys and clubs I didn't want to do that how'd you get over it I went to buy a cetera P you had to go to therapy for the sex addiction yes sir Wow you even went to an acupuncture she said and she said she could tell you had too many oh my god I walked in some room and this asian woman you know III had bronchitis and she gave me the the needles and all over I looked like a porcupine when she finished mm-hmm and right before I walked out of her office she said how many boyfriend you got mmm one she said how many boyfriend you got I said two cuz I had slept with a guy that morning and then I slept with another guy that night that was the only time I ever did that whoa she looked at me she said to man with one more man make one more man poison hmm oh my god [ __ ] out of that I don't know how she knew I had done that [ __ ] in New York and I got into LA I was like okay baby yeah yeah but yeah when Walter Cronkite came on the news and said everybody you slept with you slept with everybody they slept with for the last seven years I told my girlfriend I said [ __ ] book me a trip around the world and put it on the credit card cuz I'm a dead [ __ ] you know ya scared that a world 808 stopped us all I'm when I was in Monaco I remember and somebody had called me and told me that Luther Vandross had AIDS but it was because he had lost weight he didn't he didn't have a know anybody that lost a lot of weight back in those days you you just even had a that he was gonna crack this right right right and so you know I love me some Luther you know and that went through my head over there I was just getting ready to sleep with some French boy it was gorgeous I'll never forget anyway very nice but anyway but I put on the brakes that night said I ain't doing this no more I don't wanna die but isn't it a sense of like power when you're so sexually liberated oh absolutely are you kidding I was a queen no rule I was an alpha until hmm life set in and all the baby started dying for me mm-hmm ah they dropped like flies y'all hmm we were too young to experience all that death and as I wrote this book I realized for the first time that they died so quick I hadn't didn't even have time to mourn them this book almost killed me ain't gonna lie to y'all threw that [ __ ] in the pool yeah I got a pool I that was funny yeah but I threw the manuscript in the pool a couple of times it was too much it was too much my editor flew out to LA Dover in the pool and came out she said you gonna finish this [ __ ] and I did and I said in this book cuz I gave everything if after I die there's a little girl a little boy in a war-torn country that is unable to take one more step and there's a tattered copy of this across the street and she reads one line and it gives her just one more step then I did something mm-hmm I just hope she don't read dick Deva first now did every dick make you [ __ ] or did you already know your body so much for maybe masturbation I didn't need no man to make me [ __ ] just I used me and I discarded them like tissue paper back in those days I was a brick house 36-24-36 anything I wanted to do but yes it was a need it was a drug I didn't do hard drugs I was at a party with the San Diego Chargers when I was torn country with a Broadway show called eubie eubie Blake's music and they were passing around a brown box I said what's that he said that's coke baby I said how you doing he said we're just you know pull it right there snort it up and thank God I asked this second question I said and then what happens he said where you gonna feel a drip down your throat I said my throat [ __ ] I got a [ __ ] matinee tomorrow I ain't putting [ __ ] on my throat and thank God but once again the dream there you go see if you really want something you ain't gonna mess yourself up too bad if you really want to do when I was a little girl I sang my first solo in church five years old I'm in the pink record player I used to listen to Dorothy Dorothy Coates yeah and the harmonies or something like that and I sang a song called Oh Lord you brought me a mighty long way at five years old and when I got up in choir stand that rush of love came over the pews I mean the church was up oh don't forget that so singing was your first love yeah and I stood there and with my thumb in my mouth and and saw that love and I went oh this is life and I never looked back a lot of people don't know I sing I sing I sing I sing way before I was acting we see you on Instagram oh yeah we Brandi and Brandon my girls and my baby bread dough just rods right you don't get that voice overnight no you don't and I sang a song after day who after Parkland called our children shouldn't have to run from bullets they should never ever even see a gun they should be somewhere having fun hmm our children shouldn't have to run from bullets oh yo it's a new day and just while I'm here for midterm y'all better get your asses out and vote oh my god don't let me go in on that co-ed you got time no I'm just saying you know I would not want to ask you I'm sure you took a HIV test at some point in your life oh honey I don't sleep with a man no more or less we go there oh yeah first when you took after all that sex what was that like well you married you don't sleep in me I've never been man you've been engaged four times I've been engaged four times I have four rings but I never went through with it LeBron I listen I married my career and I have no regrets I have a beautiful daughter here that I met in the big sister Big Brother program I was a big sister for five years and when she turned 12 and mother was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis and was unable to raise her so I adopted her and she's 30 now and just pretty she can be I'm so proud of us Charmaine hey show me laura's over there - yeah Lauren my other baby yes Lauren the streets well you were relieved after you took the first oh yeah oh yeah I actually got real stressed out when I first moved to LA you know Robert wax brought me out there he was a manager he managed Eddie Murphy on his roster back at that time was Eddie Arsenio Chris and me so but I wasn't ready I didn't know who I was hmm I would crumble at auditions cry myself to sleep sing myself to sleep with tears bipolar disorder ain't no joke if y'all know somebody's suffering with mental illness reach out but I tell people and I'm on the road now reach out about three times and then leave the answer long because they will kill you that's rude you understand can I ask you something through at this time you talked about how you acted to other people and sometimes people you would make people upset cry kind of obnoxious did anybody think anything was wrong or did they think there was some type of mental illness going on or did they just think that you would be no people didn't think about mental illness like that back in the day it wasn't you know at the forefront of issues at that time because people can be like they they would think you know I was never called a [ __ ] I never had any malice in me I was just nuts and I was high-strung and but I was so talented and pretty you know I got through the door but it once again I was the mask you see it was the mask and I was good that's good I you know I'm a natural what do you think about this advice that you were given if you want to be famous you need to pull back and not be so damn good haha well back in those days y'all you had to they couldn't market you you had to be a singer comedian you know actress they could market one thing mm-hmm I refused I had too much talent I wasn't just gonna be one you know now did you need all of them on now you know my idols were Judy Garland Sammy Davis jr. you know Pearl Bailey Aretha Franklin the I I studied the Giants Billie Holiday you know Mahalia Jackson I studied the Giants I came to slay baby I wouldn't I told y'all I wasn't tiptoeing there was nothing tiptoe about me I was an alpha but even when you all that we are all human and we are fragile and you must be compassionate I tell my audiences out there on this book tour stop talking about one another what she wearing how much she weigh it's enough evil going on in the world right now be nice to each other be kind to each other that word I love that word kindness whoa who had your back as a child I'm looking at I'm looking at everything that you've been through and my mom's mom no no wasn't my mom no because every one time to speak to us had your back my teachers mmm my professors in college and I went in search of mothers I tell my daughter now if I'm not good enough for you then you go find some more mamas hmm that's why that word is on the end of friend you gotta have friends you can't get everything from one person I had about five mamas I talked about him in the book little sweet Jewish woman used to live down down a town friend of Billie Holiday's Elaine Swain and Mama's all over the United States that's ironic that you became the mother of black Hollywood not are you well you know I gotta tell you working with Tupac and Whitney and taraji and happy nerd Kevin and and Gabrielle you know I've been everybody's mama and now but I'm just you know I what I didn't have any kids mhm I didn't have any kids but I got my baby so I had to learn how to be a mama they calling me the mother of the movement now cuz 25 percent of my life is show business now 75 is the resistance so what did you think when you heard Kanye West a couple of weeks ago in in some of the things that he was saying he did hurt Oh Lord honey I don't play no attention to these Millennials and all that trash I heard him saying he said something about what it's our fault that we were in slavery or something like that choice he misspoke Avery was a choice poor baby he gonna be alright job somebody gotta get that baby in there they gotta get it yeah he might be suffer from some type of no no I'm here to tell you right now and quote me and he can come for me Kanye has a mental illness I can see that I know what it looks like Donald Trump has a mental illness when he pushed that leader aside oh I said I guess I knew it was crazy when he started talking not crazy just and he's a sociopath on top of his mental illness I don't hate Donald Trump I feel sorry for him I feel sorry for him because he's sick and he's trying to do this [ __ ] he don't know what he doing man is insane he's insane first off me to feel sorry for a rich privileged white man I feel sorry for him cuz I know he's sick and look at him baby I'm gonna go go and there's enough people beating him up it's pathetic so what do we do as people you know we talk about you know resisting what can we do to fight back come together sit at the table like dr. King did with John Lewis and Rosa she didn't just sit down on that bus they were ready armed to do it legally come to the table sit down talk to your children come together have when you have those dinner parties before you party at your house parties everybody sit down for a minute before you party and get a I I dare you I dare you to sit down and talk about what's going on they are shooting your babies what do we do though cuz it feels so hopeless because it's like you can't fight the police back you want to cuz that's this your natural instinct you will not be hopeless hmm not on my watch y'all had a black president act like you sit down at the table and figure it out I just told that basketball player Mary Davis yes your great great great great grandma got on both of her knees and hands and got raped every which way while she was doing it and you can get on one knee not on my watch watch me you think we talk too much in public as far as black people tell I plan too much please you think we talk too much in public no we can't talk enough some of us you gotta understand when you know who you are when you do the work and the work y'all get a journal ever I get a journal I go and write down everything every feeling everything you did that's how I wrote the book I kept the journal we saw pieces of your journal yeah I kept the journal since I was in seventh grade I had to read 63 books to write this one because I needed to be in order because my life there's no routine in show business you go from one shoulder shoulder so you know you're in Japan your initial there was no order but when I finally got to therapy my therapist said um that that's probably what saved my life I didn't know I was saving my life by writing I knew I was gonna be a star and I was gonna need to write my book see everything was geared to becoming a star I wanted my mother to love me and you want to know how it first came about sitting in front of the TV eating cornflakes with powdered milk from the government C&H pure cane sugar from Hawaii just right my black and white TV and they used to show those commercials with starving kids from Africa but they were very vivid in those days they would show they will show the Flies and the eyes and the snot and everything stomachs malnutritioned whoo and I sat there and I thought to myself if I can be famous I can be rich and if I'm rich I'll give them some food some believe that that's not happening you seem very self aware I am darling I did a lot of work I did a lot of work on myself y'all and I'm gonna be real honest with you oh I love myself I do I do I love myself I love that I took care of myself so that I could enjoy my success but more than that oh I got something to say Miguel the love of my life I was going into that he said to me one day after I was on I was down in the subway station I was singing don't go changing try to please and then I start laughing that damn fool cause acoustics down there are fabulous and you know I was in my 20s I was a meteorite back then well that was that mania too and they didn't know you got to understand they didn't know about it now we know about mental illness look in the mirror babies you know if something's wrong come on what Miguel say to you go Miguel said and if mmm I used to love that mmm anyway [ __ ] so listen he said to me he said yennefer do you have this great ability to get the attention of the people but then you say nothing hmm that [ __ ] jumped out at me well my baby be proud of me today mm-hmm I got something to say I took the journey y'all gone baby what I was gonna ask you is there anything that you took out of the book once you finished the manuscript and said you know what maybe I shouldn't tell this ain't no shame in my game I got no shame mm-hmm not not even the slightest come for me I'm gonna make yes I lived a whole life I mean you want to talk about born-again you know I stayed in therapy as long as I did because I had to be rear aged I got scars on my thighs right now from the putting that leather strap on me and y'all do me a favor stop hitting your kids hmm stop that [ __ ] talk to him talk to them em timeout I don't care what you do but you stop hitting them you feel like that it's called you in every way mm-hmm well there's a difference between welts on your leg and popping don't you think popping just pull them over pull them to the side they don't understand that [ __ ] they just gonna grow up and do it to somebody else that son you popping upside the head you know what I was engaged that was one of the reasons I didn't go through with my last engagement why he'd be the kid no no no his father he would sit and do his math problems and when he didn't get it his father would just you know this is his head hmm hey that's abuse and when I use happened to me oh when I used to ask him you know to to journal cuz I was trying to work it out I tried to work it out with him you know write it down boo so we're not going at each other he couldn't even hold a pen from his father beating music ooh stop hitting your children stop it that's what they did to us stop that you can you can discipline discipline them another way right find a way that's your blood fool why do they call you a killer in high school how the bully the bully how's a bully but I got to tell you one thing everybody that I remember that I hurt I called him and told him I was sorry because hurt people hurt people so you were going through so much absolutely well they say if somebody's beating you at home you're gonna go to school and beat somebody else's that hmm hey come on now and I never want to fight [ __ ] you know that was too short [ __ ] girls that used to come at you with the windiest and they're like they beat my ass but I had the personality to go back to school and convinced everybody I had won the fight with the black eye my goodness yeah and the college they called you majestic oh that was this era the era of the mask but mind you I was street smart now let me tell you a little story about the con artist that came into my life I was busy hmm I was busy getting a honorary doctorate degree in a Lifetime Achievement Award I was on blackish and he appeared he slithered in and I'll just start to myself oh my god done sent the man to so I wouldn't paying attention it got 50 grand from me I was investing in our future mm-hmm can I say his name is Tony Marriott Wilson and he had been doing it since he was 15 years old in and out of jail he was masterful he ripped off 13 people 4.3 million dollars went to jail told me he was at Oxford I'm telling y'all this boy had a titanium tongue you got to know you got to be a master to come up against me and I hey hey we always know by the way we know something's wrong we ain't cha don't you ever walk up to me go well I didn't know yes you did what was his car know okay so I felt something y'all oh I couldn't put my he was so good everything was all I'm in he was oh he's so good so what happened was my girlfriend we were all in the hot tub one night about four of us and my girlfriend Julia Walker she said hey Jenny when I'm going to lunch with you and Tony and we were all in the dark there's candles and everything right and she heard me say well we just kind of want to be alone and I kinda and she said she said to herself when the [ __ ] did you start mumbling hmm she went and went deeper of course he had sent me to a fake website and everything to verify who he was and all that [ __ ] and she saw it jail fraud mm-hmm came over to my house turned it around showed me I went Wow and I had to run upstairs to get him out of my house I went running upstairs I went oh I just got a new Kevin Hart movie I got to go over to Disney and die to that big lie to get him out of my house he used his kids that's when I softened and that's hot that's why I'm gonna get his ass oh don't you worry I'm coming for you baby believe that [ __ ] the gone was you know we're gonna get married and and he was married and but you know the lies I'm with the kids you know I can't you know it's just lies y'all know the lies we all been ripped off or something we all been portrayed betrayed why you do mama like that was named Tony Tony Marriott Wilson it changes his name every five minutes and look him up and be careful of him cuz he's still out there I wasn't able I did win the lawsuit from LA Fitness cuz that's where he worked Oh God y'all I could go look the police record the court records is on a Facebook go there and read the details and all you silly little people who put comments on there Oh God but I have to say I laughed my ass off one of the comments was um he's an Amish Lewis Lewis you just been dick demise y'all that story to my therapist when I went to my therapy because y'all I found out that son of a [ __ ] was a con artist on the same day my mother died oh man I got mad at God let me say this I don't talk about religion but I'll say this mm-hmm we all get mad when horrible things happen and we get real man sometimes we hurt ourselves don't stay mad too long don't hurt yourself too bad mm-hmm we human and we but don't stay down too long don't you waste your life in them dark rooms by yourself right don't do it you talk about getting molested by your pastor too oh yeah I was I was molested by the pastor of my church that's 15 years old you know how in choirs visit churches you know a visiting choirs coming well we were on our way home and there was no room in the truck because you know we used to ride in the back of the truck in those days got a ride you know so I said I'm riding with the past I was so happy and halfway home mmm I said to him hey pastor heard do you think I can be a star he pulled over leaned over mmm tried to kiss me but i clenched my teeth and he circled his tongue mmm and then I felt his hand on my breast and I resisted profusely I was like pushing him back John I understand this was the man of God I couldn't like punch that [ __ ] you know we had been taught yeah you're good to hear him no I couldn't I'll tell you why because it was pounded in our heads to Revere this son of a [ __ ] to worship Him this man of God so I resist it and he saw that that [ __ ] wasn't gonna happen so he started the car pulled off when we exited the highway I opened the door to spit him out of me I've been holding it in numb sittin there numb and when he grabbed my arm cuz he thought I was gonna jump out of the car I couldn't even say don't touch me you son of a [ __ ] because I was speaking to a man of God mmm ran in the house told my momma there was no Oprah Winfrey in those days you understand what I'm saying mm-hmm women back then made he know how to confront that Kenaston there was no therapy we were eating government cheese she was on welfare no times up me to movement hey now so it was never discussed again hmm but you did end up having to ride in the car with him oh yeah but that let them read on that I want to stay on this molestation he took everything from me in seven seconds mm-hmm you fave everything took God cuz he was a man of God took my career cuz I was asking about it and took my mother in seven seconds they don't have to rape you if you've been touched inappropriately tell somebody and if they don't listen go tell somebody else and then you tell somebody and then you stand out in the street and scream his or her name screaming out loud get it off of you honey cuz you'll eat yourself to death [ __ ] me pastor I'm surprised you didn't know yeah [ __ ] him for sure oh well that's the chapter the chapter on the molestation because 33 years later after I've been in therapy mm-hmm I called him I got real drunk I was so scared mm-hmm got real drunk and he picked up the phone I was in LA he was in st. Louis and he said hello Jennifer we're so proud of you you're on fresh prints and a dip your own television Jennifer I said it ain't that kind of call [ __ ] hmm you read the book for the end of that [ __ ] I will talk about it actually pick up the book the mother of black ha it's so much more than unit does she work oh man he was on Bill Cosby Show you don't want me to go in on Bill did you did you see anything back yes I saw some suspicious [ __ ] yes I did yes I did what'd you see all right you want the story yeah yeah I'll give you the story I told you honey you ain't come to play I ain't scared of none of this well don't ask me what room I was in I think I was auditioning for something I don't know what it was when I was here in New York and there was a young girl in there I'm gonna start again I need to you tell you from the hood I got a show tomorrow night I'm sold out I put a little Club called to try a 72nd Street I'm excited cuz for the gypsies the Broadway gypsies all right when I'm stereo copy was button-down somebody oh that's cold so I'm in a room with this girl she's got red hair and she's thin I hope she's watching the [ __ ] don't know who she was or what but we were in that room and I was going on and on about myself what else talking talking talking about what I'm doing and I said we were having a good time man this girl was just talking and I looked I remember looking out the window at the Hudson River I remember like it was yesterday I'm talking out and I said and next week I'm doing The Cosby Show and she I didn't hear her say none cuz we've been laughing and everything so I turned around and when I tell you this girl turned red she's like I turned around in her whole [ __ ] a change had reversed in a second just from hearing his name I said what's wrong with you you hate me you know back in those days we revered Cosby and she was a pretty little thing so I thought in my head oh girl she done gone up you know auditioned and slept with her much know how we used to play ain't she mad didn't think not nothin she mad cuz she didn't get the job you know well oops mmm and here now these many years later I mean let me tell you something there's some [ __ ] you can't fake now why would this child roll up and say some [ __ ] like that to me we're with it hmm I think was 94 I did Kyle you can look on IBM and see when I did The Cosby Show but yeah that happened and once again he didn't come for me but he did when I went to his dressing room after the show I had a girlfriend with me and he had it slapped her ass when we left the room didn't know coz when she no he didn't know she told me when we stepped outside of the door she said you know we were kids you know that's all I'm gonna say about that man because once again y'all compassion so you're not surprised I don't hate I I don't look I try not to hate anybody but these sick pedophiles these evil you know I said it on the view there's one thing to have a sex addiction it's another thing to be evil and take advantage of children and all these men and power you think they supposed to suck your dick cuz you got money Trump himself that stormy couldn't have made that [ __ ] up with him sitting there talking about himself on the cover of a magazine I'm Trump would never talk about himself and she's and she's sick of that [ __ ] this [ __ ] had been in the business right he's like [ __ ] please just give me the goddamn magazine and she spanked him with it you can't make that up you can't make that up you know when somebody's telling the truth I use looking eyes hmm you know the problem but nothing you see in Hollywood now at the times of me Oh nobody came for me out there I had too much talent mm-hmm she not that you know I'm trying to say that they didn't come for me but you know I came in the room loud and bold and ready and I'm not sucking your dick to get a job are you insane not after the work I did on myself so because you like one guy he was too little oh yeah that was a little easy open man honey you gonna put that in my ear and the next day giving us new steps I was like huh oh my daughter always jokes and carry on we appreciate you for joining us it's so grateful and thankful thank you pick up this memoir it was really incredible it was great for me to read as a woman but for everybody I think this is young I think everybody knows somebody that is mentally ill somebody speeds in a car talking too fast walking too fast being rageful all the time and they disappear for weeks come on y'all we all got a little bit I go to every once a week good for you absolutely good for you go take care of yourselves self care self care so your arms will be strong when the people you love fall and don't be a stranger we know you got messages you want to and things you want to talk about so don't be a scream well yeah I won't say where your outlet yeah you guys come out go to Jennifer Lewis for real no I said we're your outlet okay all right but you guys go to Jennifer Lewis for real Facebook Jennifer Lewis for real on Instagram and Twitter and look for the schedule the book tour so you can come out and hear some good stuff all right it's The Breakfast Club is Jennifer Lewis [Music]

Channel: Breakfast Club Power 105.1 FM

Views: 2,032,577

Keywords: the breakfast club, power1051, celebrity news, radio, video, interview, angela yee, charlamagne tha god, dj envy, jenifer lewis

Id: VEl1i75rlRg

Length: 63min 11sec (3791 seconds)

Published: Tue May 15 2018