Shannon Sharpe (L) and Steve Harvey (R), "Club Shay Shay" (Photo: YouTube screenshot)
This seems like a one-on-one interview that was meant to happen. Comedian, host, actor, and author Steve Harvey sat down recently with former pro football player Shannon Sharpe for an interview.
Sharpe now hosts a popular weekly podcast called “Club Shay Shay.” He and Harvey discussed a wide range of topics. The interview, posted on YouTube on April 24, was entitled “Steve Harvey on Divorces, Showering In Bathrooms, Importance Of Women & Daughter Lori.”
Sharpe is a three-time Super Bowl champion, a pro football Hall of Fame member, and co-host of “Undisputed” on FS1.
Here are five takeaways from the interview.
Harvey, who has talked about being homeless and living out of his car following a divorce and trying to make it as a standup comic, went through the details with Sharpe on how he lost his fortune twice. He went through a messy second divorce and then owed the government millions.
Sharpe asks Harvey bluntly how he could go broke after his famous “Kings of Comedy” tour in 1998, which Sharpe noted took in “$30 million.” Harvey corrected him, saying it made more.
“I had saved some millions, but before I split the assets, she [Harvey’s second wife Mary Shackleford] went into the account and removed it,” Harvey told Sharpe.
Harvey was married to Shackleford from 1996 to 2005.
“The divorce was over, and it’s like, let’s split the assets; well, you took all the assets. And I was stuck with this tax bill. I had to pay seven years of back taxes with interest. I was in a world of trouble, man. I looked up, and I had $1700,” the “Family Feud” host said in 2010. “Regardless, it just goes to show that no one is ever as well off as you think they are.”
Then there was the time Harvey had a rude awakening about his taxes. He had entrusted his finical advisor with paying his tax payments, and it turned out his advisor/accountant was pocketing the money and not paying Harvey’s taxes.
“But I got jumped on even before the divorce. I’m gonna say who did it, but they go in cahoots with my financial planner, and I was writing checks to the government for seven years, in tax checks. Filling in the tax checks, giving them to be turned in, and they was keeping them,” he shared. “They was taking the money from the account like I was paying taxes and keeping it for theyself.”
He discovered the truth. “My accountant passed, and a lady went into the offices and found a box on the floor… I’m thinking I’m even, but my lawyer says to me, ‘you haven’t paid taxes in seven years.’”
Harvey and Sharpe also discussed his infamous Miss Universe Pageant fumble. In 2015, Harvey initially announced Ariadna Gutiérrez of Colombia as the new Miss Universe but had to return to the stage and apologize. Gutiérrez was the 1st runner-up, not the winner. Pia Wurtzbach of the Philippines was the actual winner.
Harvey explained to Sharpe that the mistake was not his–someone behind the scenes wanted to change how the winners were announced and failed to inform Harvey. When he was given the contestants’ names in a different order than he was expecting, and Harvey said he was confused and announced the wrong winner.
After the wrong name was called, producers of the show advised him to wait until the next day to issue the correction, but Harvey decided to go back out and address it on the spot, which he now regrets.
“Stupidest shit I ever did!” he said to Sharpe. “I should’ve let them fix it in the news. My stupid ass walked right out there and took the full hit, man. I took it dead in the teeth like it was all my fault, but it wasn’t.”
Harvey revealed to Sharpe that he tries to be in tune with the plan that God has for him.
“I’ve entered a new phase. I was out of the country and I was talking to God about these deals. We’d get right to the edge..and something would happened…God said I want you to go home…I want you take a minute and look at everything I’ve done for you,” said Harvey, this made him reflect on his success and to be thankful. “My focus was in what I was trying to make happen and I was losing sight of what had already happened. If you want more, you have to be grateful for what you have.”
Shannon Sharpe (L) and Steve Harvey (R), “Club Shay Shay” (Photo: YouTube screenshot)
