Transcription
She had everybody thinking Martin was a monster, that he was a creep, that he was volatile, that he was dangerous. And so to do all of that and then turn around today and be like, "I'll never say anything foul about Martin and I'll protect him to my dying day." Who? Who protected him from you?
Teacher Campbell's in the building. Um, you survived Martin the show and I know there's not much you can talk about it, but as you think back over those...
"Let me just stop you. I'mma stop you right there. Stop me right there. I'mma stop you right there."
"Never have I ever said a bad, unkind thing about the show, about Martin Lawrence. And I never will. I will protect him till the day I die. I don't care what people think about me."
"Till the day I die. I will never say a bad or unkind word to any media outlet ever."
"Okay."
"That person needs protection and I will protect him till I die. I love that loyalty."
"So, as I was saying..."
"...you ain't saying nothing because she had to stop you."
"Oh my god. I am so tired of the phoniness and the fakeness. I, I don't know about y'all, but celebrities disgust me. I mean, genuinely disgust me. Like, make me sick to my stomach because they're so fake and phony. Like, even the people interviewing them, I don't know who that chick was, but she's like, 'I love the loyalty.' What loyalty? Y'all act like we don't remember.
So, I'm, I'm scrolling through social media and I come across this interview with Tisha Campbell and Big Tiger, of all people. Where they dug him up, I have absolutely no idea. But wherever y'all found him, you need to put him back 'cause we don't want to see his face no more. Okay. But he's sitting there and the way he worded that was really nasty work. He said, 'We got Tisha Campbell in the building, so you survived Martin the show.' And I'm like, 'Bro, you making that seem like she survived R. Kelly or she survived P. Diddy. What is this thing with black men in entertainment that they always have to go along with the narrative that other black men is always guilty of something, right?'
So then what makes it even nastier work is Tisha Campbell says to him, 'Hold on, let me stop you right there. First of all, I would never say anything bad about Martin Lawrence, nor would I ever say anything to any media outlet about him because that man needs to be protected and I'll protect him with my dying breath.' What? Excuse me? Excuse me. Baking powder. First of all, you're the reason that the show went off the air. You're the reason that they had to end the show early. And, and the only reason why I say early is because that show was one of the most popular shows on television. And they literally had to end it because you decided to accuse Martin of something. And it's starting to look like he must not have done anything for you to be speaking like you're speaking right now."
"Tisha Campbell, baby. People like me, don't forget. First of all, I am so happy to hear you say that you love Martin. You respect Martin. You have nothing bad to say about Martin Lawrence till the day you die. But to me, you should have left that part of the statement alone. Even though it sound good, 'cause you brought memories. You brought back memories for someone like me that you sued Martin for SA. Hopefully y'all know what SA mean, but you sued Martin for SA. I feel like that's what killed the show anyway because y'all started recording individually in different rooms, etc. So now years later, I love to see that if, first of all, everybody get along, that you're saying that you love Martin, but now it's like, well, if you love Martin till the day you die, you have nothing bad to say till the day you die. What really happened? 'Cause you sued him for SA. Now, I don't remember what happened with the case, but either way, you sued him. So I, I just, I kind of wish you had left that conversation alone because, yeah. Now you got me like, 'So what really happened, Gina? Gina, where it happened?'"
"So, I don't know what 'memorance' is. I, I don't even know if that's a word, but just like the lady said, she doesn't remember the outcome of the lawsuit, which I'm pretty sure most of you don't remember it, but it's okay. We got the facts right here, and we're going to go over it. And trust me, it's, it's worse than you may think, right? The fact that she's sitting up here acting like she loves Martin so much is just, is crazy, right? But in addition to that, I think I know why she accused Martin of all of that heinous in the first place. And I'm going to give you my theory about that. But first, let's talk about what really happened back in '97 with this lawsuit.
So Tisha Campbell, she filed a massive lawsuit, not only against Martin, but also against the producers of the show. Now, the allegations that she was accusing Martin of was repeated and escalating sexual harassment, non-consensual touching. Okay. So, she claims that she was terrified for her safety on the set. Right? Now, what this led to, if you remember in that last season, like, I think it was like season five, right? They were never in the same room, right? They were never in in the same uh uh uh scenes together, right? So, this is when they started trying to scramble and do what they could to try to keep the show going. So, basically what they would do is they would have guest appearances and they would have these outlandish storylines that really didn't make sense and didn't align with the continuity of the show, right? So, it had all of us looking like, 'What? What in the world is going on?' Well, basically what happened is she literally had it written into her contract that her and Martin couldn't be on the set at the same time. Now, I want you to think about that. She literally had it written into her contract that Martin couldn't be on the set at the same time as her on his own television show. Right.
So, when it comes to the uh uh the lawsuit, it never saw a jury. And the reason why is because they settled out of court, right? And so what it says here is that they, uh, actually the producers actually paid an undisclosed amount, you know, just to make the whole thing go away. But even to this day, back then and to this day, Martin still maintains his innocence. He said he didn't do anything wrong. And even back in the day, I used to wonder about it because I'm like, 'Okay, if you know, if if she felt that or if it was an actual fact that he was harassing her, why wouldn't she quit the show?' Like, why wouldn't she just leave instead of being around the situation? Because what's confusing me is you here you are, you're on a show where the two of you are in a relationship and you're married on, you know, for pretend, but you got to kiss each other, you got to hug each other, you got to do all of those different things. So when you start talking about workplace sexual harassment, the water gets kind of murky when you're talking about actors who have to act like they're intimate or act like they like each other. It, it really didn't make any sense to me.
And you know what bothers me the most is how she's acting as if it's not a big deal. Like she's acting as if it didn't happen. The way she just went at Big Tiger, you would think she never did any of these things. Like, if you were around back then, you, you remember this is before the Me Too era. Like, she was go, she was literally about to destroy this man's legacy and this man's career. She had everybody thinking Martin was a monster, that he was a creep, that he was volatile, that he was dangerous. And so to do all of that and then turn around today and be like, 'I'll never say anything foul about Martin and I'll protect him to my dying day.' Who? Who protected him from you back in the day? Who protected his reputation from you back in the day? And why are you acting like this is not a big deal? If it wasn't a big deal, why did it take so long for y'all to have a reunion show? Why was it a big fuss about y'all all of y'all linking back up and reconciling and and having a conversation? If, if none of that happened, why would you need to do all of that?"
"Tisha Campbell, it wasn't about what you did say, it was about what you didn't say. You waited all these years to clear Martin's name. But you got to remember, let's take it back down memory lane because allegedly you let that man that's not your man come in between a friendship and also in between your career. And that's why when that man left you, he left you with no money in the bank because you gave that man too much control over you. I'mma say this and the guideline is true. You know, and I know that this needs to be called out because you had probable cause at the moment at the time to why you didn't want to be on that show no more. And within a lawsuit, you said some things that were very damaging towards Martin Lawrence and his career.
So, with that being said, let me tell you my theory as to why I believe Tisha Campbell accused Martin of all of this in the first place. So, if you go back and you watch the seasons of Martin, with the exception of season five, right? What you'll notice is one fundamental thing: the incredible electric chemistry between Martin Lawrence and Tisha Campbell. Like, it's extremely believable that they're in a relationship going through all of the relationship problems that people go through, the ups and downs and all that. In fact, I kind of associate them with Bill Cosby and Phylicia Rashad because to this day, I still feel like Bill and Phylicia are in a relationship. I still view them as Cliff and Clair Huxtable. And it's the same thing with Martin Payne and Gina Waters. Right now, the reason I believe they had chemistry like that is I believe Martin and Tisha were fooling around. Now, I can't prove this. I've heard rumors about it that they were allegedly having an affair. Now, what I think happened is I think Duane Martin found out about this or, at the very least, he started noticing how friendly they were and the type of relationship they had and started becoming suspicious. And I think to throw him off the trail, to to deflect away from what was really going on, I believe Tisha Campbell told a lie and said that Martin was harassing her, that Martin was unwantedly touching her, that Martin was doing certain things. Cuz think about it. Let's say he was hugging Tisha Campbell and Duane Martin just happened to show up to the set and seen them hugging or whatever. What's the easiest way to deflect away from that? To push him away like, 'Get off me,' and then turn around and say, 'Oh yeah, he's been harassing me. He's been doing this for years.' I don't care what nobody say. I believe this was an excuse and a justification to hide the fact that Tisha Campbell was allegedly having an affair with Martin.
And, and all these years later, the reason why she's acting like this is because even though she's not willing to just own it and and and have a conversation about it, I feel like this is her way of of trying to atone for it. You know, 'I'm going to protect Martin until the day I die, and I'll never say anything foul about him.' I mean, sounds like you feel guilty. That's really what it sounds like. But in my humble opinion, I think that she just lied. I think she told a lie back in the day in order to avoid, you know, destroying her marriage, right? I think she was trying to save her marriage. And now that she's no longer married to Duane Martin and that blew up, now she's like, 'You know what? Let me, let me try to atone for this by acting like I love Martin so much and I care about him so much instead of just apologizing.' Instead of just apologizing to Martin and the fans and saying, 'You know what? I screwed up. I destroyed a hit TV show at the height of its popularity. A cultural, a culturally iconic show that everybody loved.' Cuz I'mma tell you the truth, Tisha. If you ever see this video, you broke every last one of our hearts by accusing Martin of that. You should be ashamed of yourself. And really, you should own it and admit to everybody that it was a load of crap in the first place."