Janet Hubert's Biggest Gripes With Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Will Smith and the World at Large
We all stand corrected, thanks to Janet Hubert.
Earlier this week, '90s kids rejoiced upon seeing a Fresh Prince of Bel-Air reunion photo Alfonso Ribeiro shared, which featured Will Smith, Tatyana Ali, Karyn Parsons, Daphne Maxwell Reid and Joseph Marcell. He captioned the photo, "Always amazing to spend an afternoon with my Fresh Prince family."
But this was no "reunion," and according to Hubert—who played Aunt Viv for three seasons before Reid replaced her—there never will be.
The actress took to Facebook to slam Ribeiro and the photo, writing, "The media hoe Alphonso Ribero [sic] has posted his so called reunion photo . . . He was always the ass wipe for Will," she said, noting, "There will never be a true reunion."
If your jaw just dropped over the harsh words, pick it back up...This is far from the first time Hubert has gone off on one of her former sitcom co-stars, the show in general and, well, the world at large.
Let's take a look back at all of her public feuds over the years:
Her Decades Long Beef With Will Smith: What better way to begin this article than with her 20-plus year feud with the Fresh Prince himself.
The beef started way back in 1993 when Hubert was replaced by Reid to play Aunt Viv, and, although her exit was attributed to the age-old standby of creative differences, Hubert has never been one to shy away from voicing her belief that her issues with Smith were the real reason for her departure...and the end of her career in general.
That year, she told BVonBooks (the site is now part of Huffington Post's Black Voices), "My departure was planned for a long time... There will never be a reunion of the Fresh Prince. Will Smith and Alfonso [Ribiero] destroyed a 20-year-career with untruths. I got slammed."
In 2010, she further explained where the issues started between her and Smith.
"I was a dark-skinned, African-American mother, and Will used to tell the 'you're-so-black' jokes to the audience before the show," she told BlackAmerica Web, per The Huffington Post. "And at one point, I came out and stopped him, and the audience went 'Woooo!' He didn't understand how unbelievably disrespectful that was to women like me...'Yo mama's so black, when she looks at her shoes, she thinks she's looking in the mirror. Ha, ha!'"
The feud only continued in 2011, when she told TMZ there will never, ever be a Fresh Prince reunion. "There will never be a reunion…as I will never do anything with an a--hole like Will Smith. He is still an egomaniac and has not grown up. This constant reunion thing will never ever happen in my lifetime unless there is an apology, which he doesn't know the word."
During a visit on The Real in 2016, she echoed those thoughts and explained that she continues to wait for her name to be cleared of things she swears she never did.
"Janet Hubert was never difficult on that set. Janet Hubert was so professional, it wasn't even funny," she began, referring to herself in third person. "I think Will simply needed to win and I think sometimes when you get caught up in a lie and those things never happened. She never left the set. I never left the set. We got along great."
She continued, "I think he was young and he was inexperienced and I think he simply had to win. And sometimes when you get caught up in a lie and I went back to them in 2009 I and said, 'Please I need you to clear my name.'...And I was waiting in my heart thinking somebody would come to me one day and help me, but they didn't."
Thus she said, "I realize that that redemption was not going to come unless I did it myself."
In 2016, she made it clear she was seeking redemption by putting out a video that slammed Smith. She revealed one of the biggest problems she had with Smith was that she believed he didn't go to bat for her and her co-stars when it came to money.
"I seem to recall, twenty-maybe-six, -seven years go—25, whatever it was—I don't even remember," she said in a video in January 2016. "I seem to remember at option time coming to you and saying, 'You know what, Will? You're the star of the show. Why don't we all get together and, with you, maybe we could get a little raise? Maybe the network since the show is, you know, such a hit and you being the star of the show, your influence would help us greatly, like they did on Friends. Like white shows do!' Remember that? Do you remember that, 'cause I do. Mmm."
She concluded, "And your response to me was, 'My deal is my deal and y'all's deal is y'all's deal.' Well karma must be a bitch because now here you are."
The "karma" Hubert is referencing was the actor and his wife, Jada Pinkett-Smith's call to boycott the 2016 Oscars due to their lack of diversity (it's important to note Smith was not nominated for Best Actor for his role in Concussion), which brings us to another one of Hubert's public feuds....
Her Beef With Jada Pinkett Smith: After Jada voiced her reasons for boycotting the 2016 Oscars, Hubert took the opportunity to go off in a 4-minute video on YouTube.
"First of all, Miss Thing," she began (we're not kidding), "Does your man not have a mouth of his own with which to speak?"
She continued, "The second thing, girlfriend, there's a lot of s--t going on in the world that you all don't seem to recognize. People are dying. Our boys are being shot left and right. People are starving. People are trying to pay bills. And you're talking about some [expletive] actors and Oscars. It just ain't that deep."
Hubert went on to say, "And here's the other thing, for you to ask other actors, and other black actresses and actors, too, to jeopardize their career and their standing in a town that you know damn well you don't do that. And here's the other thing—they don't care. They don't care! And I find it ironic that somebody who has made their living, made their living and made millions and millions of dollars from the very people you're talking about boycotting just because you didn't get a nomination, just because you didn't win."
Her Beef With Alfonso Ribeiro: But it's not just the Smith family Hubert has targeted. As if this week's rant doesn't prove it enough, she's also made it a point to let the world know she can't stand Ribeiro (who played Carlton Banks on the show).
In March 2013 she talked to The Grio about her feud with both actors,. "I think what happened, because the audience was so on my side at that time, that Will probably felt like he needed to go out, and he needed to tell a lot of lies," she claimed. "Alfonso went out to a college and told a lot of lies, but the problem is I have proof that a lot of that didn't happen."
She later told omg! Insider that Smith and Ribero were like "bad kids," and noted, "especially Alfonso. He said that I was crazy and nobody wanted to go to lunch with me."
Her Beef With Fresh Prince: As we discussed before, most of her issues with Smith stemmed from her issues with the show in general, especially financially.
She voiced some of those grievances in that same interview with The Grio. "It was a negotiation that should have come back like most do," Hubert said. "We were a very successful show and I felt like I was an integral part of that, and felt valuable, but you cannot feel valuable in Hollywood."
Her Beef With Stacey Dash: Hubert's feuds have extended beyond Fresh Prince of Bel-Air at this point, too. While she's known for slamming certain politicians and their beliefs, she's also beefed with some other famous faces in the industry.
For example, in 2016, she did not hold back when it came to voicing her opinion on Stacey Dash and her controversial comments regarding the all-white Oscars, Black History Month and BET.
During an interview with The Huffington Post, Hubert harshly suggested, "Somebody needs to slap the little bit of black she got on her off of her, okay? Because girlfriend has worked on BET more than most actresses have. I think she's just saying this kind of bull because she wants sensationalism."
She continued, "She's working for Fox, and she needs a job, and she's making a check, and she's bringing controversy to herself. Stacey is a bit of a media ho."
And you can guarantee Hubert had no apologies or regrets for the harsh words.
Janet Hubert, The Original Aunt Viv of ‘Fresh Prince’, Responds to Being Left Out of Reunion Photo
Suppose we’ve all had a moment to stop and smell the nostalgia emanating from a viral photo of the members of The Fresh Prince of Bel Air cast reuniting on some sunny Hollywood (?) terrace reserved only for nineties sitcom TV’s brightest and most memorable families. Outside of the obvious absence of Uncle Phil, played by James Avery (RIP,) one more face from the original cast was missing, that of the original (and everyone’s favorite) Aunt Viv. Actress
Actress Janet Hubert, who portrayed the iconic role, took to Facebook to sound off on Alphonso Ribero, specifically, who she dubbed a “media hoe” in a since-deleted post, which you can read in full down below. She goes on to vent:
“There will never be a true reunion of The Fresh Prince. I have no interest in seeing any of these people on that kind of level”
Hubert was reportedly fired from the show due to a contract breach that resulted from her pregnancy; an inexplicably deplorable reason to let go of a woman that carried the show alongside its star. Her longstanding (and well-reasoned) vendetta against the show has been well-documented. Let’s hope all parties find some peace in this while they can.
Original Aunt Viv, Janet Hubert, slams ‘Fresh Prince’ reunion photo
Actress Janet Hubert reportedly had a rude awakening for any Fresh Prince of Bel-Air fans out there who thought this week’s cast reunion photo was a complete reunion.
Hubert, 61, who played the original Aunt Viv on the popular 1990s sitcom for its first few seasons, was not included in the photo, which featured cast members Will Smith (Will), Alfonso Ribeiro (Carlton), Tatyana Ali (Ashley), Karyn Parsons (Hilary), Joseph Marcell (Geoffrey), and Daphne Maxwell Reid, who replaced Hubert on the show. The cast reunited on Monday for a charity lunch benefiting Parsons’ Sweet Blackberry Foundation.
Ribeiro posted the photo this week on Instagram, writing that he wished actor James Avery, who played Uncle Phil on Fresh Prince, was still alive to join in the reunion. Avery died on New Year’s Eve in 2013 due to complications from heart surgery.
Hubert reportedly voiced her displeasure with the photo in a lengthy, since-deleted Facebook posting on an unverified Facebook fan page, writing that Ribeiro is a “media hoe” who “was always the [expletive] wipe for Will [Smith].”
“There will never be a true reunion of the Fresh Prince,” the posting continued. “I have no interest in seeing any of these people on that kind of level.”
The posting added that while Hubert wasn’t offended at not being part of the reunion, she did plan on taking “some meetings in Hollywood” to try and sell an upcoming memoir, which the posting indicated is called Perfection Is Not A Sitcom Mom.
This apparent feud is the most recent between Hubert and her former Fresh Prince cast members. The actress has famously had a decades-long feud with Smith, and in 2011 told TMZ that the Philly native is “still an egomaniac and has not grown up” since his days on Fresh Prince.
“The constant reunion thing will never, ever happen in my lifetime unless there is an apology, which, he doesn’t even know the word,” she added at the time.
Hubert also slammed Smith and his wife, Jada Pinkett-Smith, last year for supporting an Oscars boycott on behalf of the black community due to a lack of diversity in the annual awards ceremony.
Smith, for his part, would likely agree with Hubert that a Fresh Prince reboot is unlikely. The star told E! News last year that he expects a reboot of the show will happen “pretty close to when hell freezes over.”
“Like, we’re going to leave that one alone,” he added.
Earlier this week, '90s kids rejoiced upon seeing a Fresh Prince of Bel-Air reunion photo Alfonso Ribeiro shared, which featured Will Smith, Tatyana Ali, Karyn Parsons, Daphne Maxwell Reid and Joseph Marcell. He captioned the photo, "Always amazing to spend an afternoon with my Fresh Prince family."
But this was no "reunion," and according to Hubert—who played Aunt Viv for three seasons before Reid replaced her—there never will be.
The actress took to Facebook to slam Ribeiro and the photo, writing, "The media hoe Alphonso Ribero [sic] has posted his so called reunion photo . . . He was always the ass wipe for Will," she said, noting, "There will never be a true reunion."
If your jaw just dropped over the harsh words, pick it back up...This is far from the first time Hubert has gone off on one of her former sitcom co-stars, the show in general and, well, the world at large.
Let's take a look back at all of her public feuds over the years:
Her Decades Long Beef With Will Smith: What better way to begin this article than with her 20-plus year feud with the Fresh Prince himself.
The beef started way back in 1993 when Hubert was replaced by Reid to play Aunt Viv, and, although her exit was attributed to the age-old standby of creative differences, Hubert has never been one to shy away from voicing her belief that her issues with Smith were the real reason for her departure...and the end of her career in general.
That year, she told BVonBooks (the site is now part of Huffington Post's Black Voices), "My departure was planned for a long time... There will never be a reunion of the Fresh Prince. Will Smith and Alfonso [Ribiero] destroyed a 20-year-career with untruths. I got slammed."
In 2010, she further explained where the issues started between her and Smith.
"I was a dark-skinned, African-American mother, and Will used to tell the 'you're-so-black' jokes to the audience before the show," she told BlackAmerica Web, per The Huffington Post. "And at one point, I came out and stopped him, and the audience went 'Woooo!' He didn't understand how unbelievably disrespectful that was to women like me...'Yo mama's so black, when she looks at her shoes, she thinks she's looking in the mirror. Ha, ha!'"
The feud only continued in 2011, when she told TMZ there will never, ever be a Fresh Prince reunion. "There will never be a reunion…as I will never do anything with an a--hole like Will Smith. He is still an egomaniac and has not grown up. This constant reunion thing will never ever happen in my lifetime unless there is an apology, which he doesn't know the word."
During a visit on The Real in 2016, she echoed those thoughts and explained that she continues to wait for her name to be cleared of things she swears she never did.
"Janet Hubert was never difficult on that set. Janet Hubert was so professional, it wasn't even funny," she began, referring to herself in third person. "I think Will simply needed to win and I think sometimes when you get caught up in a lie and those things never happened. She never left the set. I never left the set. We got along great."
She continued, "I think he was young and he was inexperienced and I think he simply had to win. And sometimes when you get caught up in a lie and I went back to them in 2009 I and said, 'Please I need you to clear my name.'...And I was waiting in my heart thinking somebody would come to me one day and help me, but they didn't."
Thus she said, "I realize that that redemption was not going to come unless I did it myself."
In 2016, she made it clear she was seeking redemption by putting out a video that slammed Smith. She revealed one of the biggest problems she had with Smith was that she believed he didn't go to bat for her and her co-stars when it came to money.
"I seem to recall, twenty-maybe-six, -seven years go—25, whatever it was—I don't even remember," she said in a video in January 2016. "I seem to remember at option time coming to you and saying, 'You know what, Will? You're the star of the show. Why don't we all get together and, with you, maybe we could get a little raise? Maybe the network since the show is, you know, such a hit and you being the star of the show, your influence would help us greatly, like they did on Friends. Like white shows do!' Remember that? Do you remember that, 'cause I do. Mmm."
She concluded, "And your response to me was, 'My deal is my deal and y'all's deal is y'all's deal.' Well karma must be a bitch because now here you are."
The "karma" Hubert is referencing was the actor and his wife, Jada Pinkett-Smith's call to boycott the 2016 Oscars due to their lack of diversity (it's important to note Smith was not nominated for Best Actor for his role in Concussion), which brings us to another one of Hubert's public feuds....
Her Beef With Jada Pinkett Smith: After Jada voiced her reasons for boycotting the 2016 Oscars, Hubert took the opportunity to go off in a 4-minute video on YouTube.
"First of all, Miss Thing," she began (we're not kidding), "Does your man not have a mouth of his own with which to speak?"
She continued, "The second thing, girlfriend, there's a lot of s--t going on in the world that you all don't seem to recognize. People are dying. Our boys are being shot left and right. People are starving. People are trying to pay bills. And you're talking about some [expletive] actors and Oscars. It just ain't that deep."
Hubert went on to say, "And here's the other thing, for you to ask other actors, and other black actresses and actors, too, to jeopardize their career and their standing in a town that you know damn well you don't do that. And here's the other thing—they don't care. They don't care! And I find it ironic that somebody who has made their living, made their living and made millions and millions of dollars from the very people you're talking about boycotting just because you didn't get a nomination, just because you didn't win."
Her Beef With Alfonso Ribeiro: But it's not just the Smith family Hubert has targeted. As if this week's rant doesn't prove it enough, she's also made it a point to let the world know she can't stand Ribeiro (who played Carlton Banks on the show).
In March 2013 she talked to The Grio about her feud with both actors,. "I think what happened, because the audience was so on my side at that time, that Will probably felt like he needed to go out, and he needed to tell a lot of lies," she claimed. "Alfonso went out to a college and told a lot of lies, but the problem is I have proof that a lot of that didn't happen."
She later told omg! Insider that Smith and Ribero were like "bad kids," and noted, "especially Alfonso. He said that I was crazy and nobody wanted to go to lunch with me."
Her Beef With Fresh Prince: As we discussed before, most of her issues with Smith stemmed from her issues with the show in general, especially financially.
She voiced some of those grievances in that same interview with The Grio. "It was a negotiation that should have come back like most do," Hubert said. "We were a very successful show and I felt like I was an integral part of that, and felt valuable, but you cannot feel valuable in Hollywood."
Her Beef With Stacey Dash: Hubert's feuds have extended beyond Fresh Prince of Bel-Air at this point, too. While she's known for slamming certain politicians and their beliefs, she's also beefed with some other famous faces in the industry.
For example, in 2016, she did not hold back when it came to voicing her opinion on Stacey Dash and her controversial comments regarding the all-white Oscars, Black History Month and BET.
During an interview with The Huffington Post, Hubert harshly suggested, "Somebody needs to slap the little bit of black she got on her off of her, okay? Because girlfriend has worked on BET more than most actresses have. I think she's just saying this kind of bull because she wants sensationalism."
She continued, "She's working for Fox, and she needs a job, and she's making a check, and she's bringing controversy to herself. Stacey is a bit of a media ho."
And you can guarantee Hubert had no apologies or regrets for the harsh words.
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| NBC |
Janet Hubert, The Original Aunt Viv of ‘Fresh Prince’, Responds to Being Left Out of Reunion Photo
Suppose we’ve all had a moment to stop and smell the nostalgia emanating from a viral photo of the members of The Fresh Prince of Bel Air cast reuniting on some sunny Hollywood (?) terrace reserved only for nineties sitcom TV’s brightest and most memorable families. Outside of the obvious absence of Uncle Phil, played by James Avery (RIP,) one more face from the original cast was missing, that of the original (and everyone’s favorite) Aunt Viv. Actress
Actress Janet Hubert, who portrayed the iconic role, took to Facebook to sound off on Alphonso Ribero, specifically, who she dubbed a “media hoe” in a since-deleted post, which you can read in full down below. She goes on to vent:
“There will never be a true reunion of The Fresh Prince. I have no interest in seeing any of these people on that kind of level”
Hubert was reportedly fired from the show due to a contract breach that resulted from her pregnancy; an inexplicably deplorable reason to let go of a woman that carried the show alongside its star. Her longstanding (and well-reasoned) vendetta against the show has been well-documented. Let’s hope all parties find some peace in this while they can.
Original Aunt Viv, Janet Hubert, slams ‘Fresh Prince’ reunion photo
Actress Janet Hubert reportedly had a rude awakening for any Fresh Prince of Bel-Air fans out there who thought this week’s cast reunion photo was a complete reunion.
Hubert, 61, who played the original Aunt Viv on the popular 1990s sitcom for its first few seasons, was not included in the photo, which featured cast members Will Smith (Will), Alfonso Ribeiro (Carlton), Tatyana Ali (Ashley), Karyn Parsons (Hilary), Joseph Marcell (Geoffrey), and Daphne Maxwell Reid, who replaced Hubert on the show. The cast reunited on Monday for a charity lunch benefiting Parsons’ Sweet Blackberry Foundation.
Ribeiro posted the photo this week on Instagram, writing that he wished actor James Avery, who played Uncle Phil on Fresh Prince, was still alive to join in the reunion. Avery died on New Year’s Eve in 2013 due to complications from heart surgery.
Hubert reportedly voiced her displeasure with the photo in a lengthy, since-deleted Facebook posting on an unverified Facebook fan page, writing that Ribeiro is a “media hoe” who “was always the [expletive] wipe for Will [Smith].”
“There will never be a true reunion of the Fresh Prince,” the posting continued. “I have no interest in seeing any of these people on that kind of level.”
The posting added that while Hubert wasn’t offended at not being part of the reunion, she did plan on taking “some meetings in Hollywood” to try and sell an upcoming memoir, which the posting indicated is called Perfection Is Not A Sitcom Mom.
This apparent feud is the most recent between Hubert and her former Fresh Prince cast members. The actress has famously had a decades-long feud with Smith, and in 2011 told TMZ that the Philly native is “still an egomaniac and has not grown up” since his days on Fresh Prince.
“The constant reunion thing will never, ever happen in my lifetime unless there is an apology, which, he doesn’t even know the word,” she added at the time.
Hubert also slammed Smith and his wife, Jada Pinkett-Smith, last year for supporting an Oscars boycott on behalf of the black community due to a lack of diversity in the annual awards ceremony.
Smith, for his part, would likely agree with Hubert that a Fresh Prince reboot is unlikely. The star told E! News last year that he expects a reboot of the show will happen “pretty close to when hell freezes over.”
“Like, we’re going to leave that one alone,” he added.
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