Comedian Kevin Hart appeared on Ellen’s show and was defiant about the controversy that his homophobic tweets stirred up last month, but Ellen said that she forgave him.
Hart was slated to host the Oscars this year, but homophobic tweets from 2009 to 2011 surfaced. In them, he used “gay” and “fag” pejoratively.
He wrote in a since-deleted tweet that he would hurt his son if he thought the son were gay: “Yo if my son comes home & try’s 2 play with my daughters doll house I’m going 2 break it over his head & say n my voice stop that’s gay.”
He tweeted after he found out that actor Dwayne L. Brown had pictures of him on his phone: “What r u some type of FAT FAG that takes pics of small black men all day?”
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In yet another tweet, he wrote that actor Damien Wayans looked like “a gay bill board for AIDS.”
Related: Ellen explains why she cancelled homophobic gospel singer’s appearance on show
On December 7, Hart stepped down from hosting the Oscars and issued an apology on Twitter: “I sincerely apologize to the LGBTQ community for my insensitive words from my past.”
Yesterday, Hart appeared on Ellen’s show, and he was less than contrite. He recounted what happened over the past several weeks from his point of view, how he didn’t want to address his jokes at first but then felt that he had to.
“Now, the slander on my name is all homophobia,” he said. “Now I’m a little upset.”
“I know that I don’t have a homophobic bone in my body. I know that I’ve addressed it. I know that I apologized.”
He was told (he didn’t say who told him) to either apologize or step down. He said that the controversy took all the “fun” out of hosting the Oscars, so he chose to step down.
“I don’t want to step on that stage make that night about me and my past, when you’ve got people who have worked hard to step on that stage for the first time and receive an award,” he said.
In the next segment, Ellen said that she wants him to host the Oscars and that she even called a representative of the Academy to try to get him his hosting gig back.
About the controversy, she said not to listen to the “haters,” who she said were “a small group of people being very, very loud.”
Hart, though, said that he’s not ready to forgive people for their “attack to end me,” that is, bringing up old tweets.
In a third segment with Hart – in which he still hasn’t talked about LGBTQ young people who have been rejected, abused, and killed by their parents – he said that he would consider doing the Oscars.
