Tiffany Haddish opened up about her 'beef' with fellow comedian Katt Williams, who has called the 'Girls Trip' star out twice.
Tiffany Haddish has no ill feelings towards fellow comedian Katt Williams, several months after the latter took shots at her during his controversial Club Shay Shay interview.
Haddish was one of the many comedians that Williams took aim at during his January appearance on the podcast and YouTube show. Throughout the nearly three-hour interview -- formerly the longest in Club Shay Shay in history -- the 52-year-old comedian took shots at several of his big-name peers, including Cedric the Entertainer, Kevin Hart and Steve Harvey.
When it came to Haddish, Williams claimed she didn't make her rounds on the comedy stand-up track as the 44-year-old claims she did during her early career, saying, "They think they can rewrite history. Guy Torry did a beautiful special about the Comedy Store and Phat Tuesday, where he said that Steve [Harvey], and Cedric [the Entertainer], and Kevin Hart, and Tiffany Haddish came through there and made... all lies. Steve and Cedric never performed at the Comedy Store at all. Tiffany was only seen at the Laugh Factory."
It wasn't the first time Williams had taken aim at Haddish. In 2018, he made similar comments on Haddish's career during an appearance on V-103's Frank and Wanda Morning Show.
"She been doing comedy since she was 16. You can't tell me your favorite Tiffany Haddish joke," Williams said. "Why? Because she ain't had a tour yet. She ain't done a special. She has not proven the ability to tell jokes back-to-back for an hour to nobody. And they all ready to down Mo'Nique and up somebody who has shown them Girls Trip. Do you think she wrote Girls Trip, goofball?"
Williams suggested that Haddish is only a success because she is attracted to white men and alleged that there were many other female comedians "that got skipped over" for Haddish to get her 2017 stand-up special, Tiffany Haddish: She Ready! From the Hood to Hollywood.
Haddish laughed off Williams' comments soon after they were aired, and on Monday's episode of the Amy & T.J. podcast, she confirmed that she harbored no ill will towards Williams for his jabs.
"I like him a lot and I respect him. I respect him more than I respect a lot of people out here because I know what struggles he went through, I know what he's been through to get to where he's at," Haddish told hosts T.J. Holmes and Amy Robach when asked about Williams. "I don't know about these 3000 books that he's read but I do know that he's done a lot of shows and I do know that it's not easy to be a comedian. It's hard."
Reflecting on the 2018 incident, Haddish claimed that she "talked to him immediately after" during which Williams apologized to her for his comments.
"I'm like yeah, but you need to publicly apologize. At the Emmys he got down on one knee and said, 'I apologize,'" Haddish claims. "[He] like bowed down at my feet and said, 'You're the queen,' and all that stuff. We took some pictures. But I don't think that was a public apology. That wasn't the same."
The Girls Trip star points out that Williams wasn't the first and he won't be the last to call her out because "[when] you bring up Tiffany Haddish, you gonna get clicks."
When it comes to Williams' Club Shay Shay interview during which he doubled down on his 2018 comments, Haddish waved the incident away, saying that she doesn't see the interview as "bashing." And she stood firm in her decision not to engage in a battle with the older comedian.
"He said my name in that interview, he didn't really say what I did or didn't do. I ain't battling him -- I sent him a script just before that went down. I would never do that to him, and if I'm doing it to him right now, I apologize because that's not my intention," she added. "I really love his comedy and I think he's a genius. When I speak with him I feel like I really grow a little bit as an individual. But I'm not gonna sit here and bash this man. And I don't think he's bashing me. He did that one time, but other than that."
Haddish has more than enough on her plate to keep her out of a back-and-forth with her peers; ET recently chatted with the actress on the set of the music video for her recently released single, "Woman Up," which she described as an "empowerment song" for women.
"Really, it's an all-the-way-around song because everybody has their dual sides," Haddish clarified. "I'm like an onion; sometimes you catch me out in public and put a camera in my face, I'm like, 'La da.' Sometimes you put a camera in my face and catch me outside [and] I'll be like, 'Listen, I'm not in the mood right now.' There's different levels to it."
The Night School star said that "Woman Up" is about "getting yourself up off the bed, get[ting] off your feet and mov[ing]."
The pop song was written by hit songwriter Diane Warren, who also spoke with ET on the music video's set. Warren explained that although she didn't write the song with Haddish in mind, it turned out to be "the perfect song for her."
The GRAMMY winner told ET that her "sixth sense" for matching the right singers to her songs helped her make the connection between "Woman Up" and Haddish. "They call me the song whisperer all the time because somebody comes in there like, 'How did you know I was going through this?' I feel a vibe and when I met Tiffany, this was an easy call," Warren adds. "It's a fun song but you know it has something to say too."
While Warren said Haddish's voice will draw listeners, she boasted that the song's relatability will help it gain fans.
She explained, "I think people are really going to connect to it because it's a really relatable subject. It's woman up, it's don't feel sorry for yourself, what are you doing, you know? Get up and woman up and get on your feet. Don't lay in bed and be miserable, get up."
It's a message that Haddish relates to personally, especially after the publicized difficulties the Girls Trip star has been through recently.
"I think [I've been] getting my a** back on track since I was 13. I feel like I make a mistake and say something crazy, do something wild probably every three months," Haddish quipped to ET, making her the perfect candidate to inspire those looking for motivation to overcome their obstacles.
"Yes, she can sing," Haddish declared, speaking of herself in the third person. "She been singing since she was three years old. We're not saying she’s good at it, we are just saying it's entertainment. I like to think of myself as the Bob Dylan of pop music."
And Haddish plans to continue making music, even sharing a list of hopeful collaborators for future singles.
"I would like to collab with Cardi B, I would love to get Megan Thee Stallion on something, I would love to do something with Taylor Swift, I would even work with Britney [Spears] too -- she's a Sagittarius [and] I'm a Sagittarius, I would love to do something with her," Haddish said. "Me and Barbra Streisand, that would be fire. Bette Midler and myself would be fire. Toni Braxton would be dope and she's my friend. Oh, me and Mariah [Carey], 'cause we go back like teenagers on fire escapes."
Watch the music video for "Woman Up" below.
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