The Scoop With The Hip-Hop Socialite…

The Hip–Hop Socialite recaps the hottest celebrity news and gossip of the last week, and drops a few exclusives…

Torrei Hart On Her New Projects, Mo’Nique’s Call For A Boycott Of Netflix, Her Blended Family With Ex Kevin Hart And New Wife Eniko (And Meeting Their New Son), And Overcoming Past Thoughts Of Suicide

There’s a lot more to Torrei Hart than the title of being the ex-wife of one of the biggest comedians in the world. Having lived in the shadow of her famous ex, Kevin Hart, for years, Torrei has successfully built her own lane as an entrepreneur, comedian and actress with her hair product line, Heavenly Hart Hair Care, “Bald and Boujee” comedy tour, and multiple upcoming movie and television projects. The proud Philadelphia native, who during our insightful chat openly acknowledged her struggle to find her happy again in the wake of her split with the Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle star, is in a good place and is even in love again (although she’s not ready to reveal to the world the identity of her someone special – I tried people, I tried). I so enjoyed talking to Torrei, as she is a source of the kind of positive energy that can even be felt through the phone. Keep scrolling to read all about what’s next for her Heavenly Hart Hair Care line, her upcoming projects, the rumors of her getting plastic surgery, making her blended family with Kevin and new wife Eniko Hart work (she recently met their new baby, Kenzo), experiencing and overcoming suicidal thoughts, and her thoughts on Mo’Nique’s call for a boycott of Netflix.

ON EXPANDING THE HEAVENLY HART PRODUCT LINE:

Well right now of course I would love to branch out into other products – I’ve been talking about it with my partner. But right now, we want to stay focused on the core of the company, which is the hair care line, and continue to build that, but in the future of course I would love to branch out into other things. Right now, our main focus is the seven products we launched with, but eventually, we will get to the other things.

ON FAN FEEDBACK ON THE HEAVENLY HART PRODUCT LINE:

Oh my God, people are loving it! We started on Amazon, and then we branched off. We’re online of course, and then we just got picked up by stores in Atlanta, New York, Philadelphia and Jersey. So the customers are loving the products – they’re loving the smell of it, the consistency, seeing the results from the miracle hair growth serum, and so the response is amazing! I’m actually a little overwhelmed because we launched in August, and we’re getting such a great feedback within like six months. So I would say it’s a great response.

ON THE SHADOW OF BEING KEVIN HART’S EX-WIFE:

Well you know what, it doesn’t even really bother me anymore to be honest with you. It is what it is. It’s a part of my story; it’s a part of my past. It just motivates me to work even harder to be honest with you. You know they say sometimes God gives His greatest missions to His greatest soldiers, so I just look at myself as, you know, I’m a voice, I’m a personality, I’m my own person. I know exactly who I am, and so what it does is it motivates me to work harder, hence why I went and worked hard on my haircare line, my standup, which I’m selling out shows. I just had four sold out shows in Baltimore, and I have a big show for my “Bald and Boujee” tour, which is coming up in Atlanta, and I know that’s going to sell out as well because I work hard, and I also do my promotions and my press. I grind to make sure I do everything to be successful. So what it does is it makes me appreciate that because people they don’t know, and I can’t blame them if they don’t know, so I have to get out there and show them. And there was a time I had to do a lot of self-help on myself and self-love to get my happy back because I was doing my artistry, but I was depressed, I was sad, and so that wasn’t energy I wanted to put out to the universe. I had to go from hell to happy and get Torrei back and find Torrei again, which that was a part of this journey as well, and people can learn that about me on stage, and through my interviews, and through my work as well. So with that being said, I inspire a lot of women who go through bad breakups, who go through divorces – they have problems in life, I show them that you can always bounce back from anything. So I actually look at it as motivation, and if you never go through bad times, you’ll never know the good, so it’s more so inspiring and inspirational for me, and I’m always up for a challenge so I don’t mind, at all.

ON HER UPCOMING PROJECTS:

There’s a project I start filming April 15, and this project is called “Southern Girls”, and it’s me, Denise Richards and Vida Guerra. The director – Carl Jackson – it’s going to be shot for his studio, and we’re shooting on the Warner Brothers lot out here in Los Angeles. This is a piece where people get to see every side of me. I’m going to take every emotion, all the emotions I have and put it into my character. It’s a dramedy, and this is something that’s going to be on Amazon, and so I look forward to shooting that, and I actually have two movies that are upcoming that I start to film. One is called “Hollywood”, and that’s going to be filming in Philadelphia with Eric Roberts, and then another project that I start in June in Jamaica is called “So Enticing”. That’s also with Eric Roberts, with Shaggy, with Patience, which is a big reggae artist, and a few other big Jamaican artists, so I look forward to all three of these upcoming projects along with my “Bald and Boujee” tour.

ON MEDIA REPORTS THAT SHE THANKED KEVIN HART FOR NEW BUTT DURING RECENT SHOW:

See what happened is they took the clip and they put what they wanted. What I said was with Hendrix, I said I love my daughter, but I really love my son because not only did he give me a bigger child support check, but he gave me a fatter ass is what I said. So no, it wasn’t plastic surgery, it was just saying that after my second kid, my ass spread, and he gave me hips and a bigger ass. I’m a late bloomer in life, and I did get a bigger ass, but let me tell you honey, I’m all for plastic surgery too. As I get older and I start to see things I don’t like, don’t get it twisted, I will definitely fix what I need to fix, and I believe that’s why there are so many talented doctors in this world because it’s a personal choice. If you want to do something I don’t see anything wrong with it – go ahead and do it. I don’t mind it at all.

ON MO’NIQUE’S CALL FOR A NETFLIX BOYCOTT:

I just feel like number one, you can’t boycott Netflix – you just can’t. I love Mo’Nique to death, and let me say this – I agree with what she said, but I don’t agree with her approach. Netflix and chill, if you get rid of Netflix and chill, then you’re getting rid of 90% of people who go on dates, okay, so you can’t do that. But I do agree with her in the sense of where’s the equality? Where is that? If I was Mo’Nique, I would’ve just took the money, smashed my special, and then showed them why they should’ve given me that because $500,000, you talking about – to me, I’ll take the $500,000. I can use that $500,000 – I need it. So I’m not going to turn that down especially for doing something I love. It’s not like they offered her $5,000 – $500,000 is still a lot of money considering, which you said, she has been off the radar. So get yourself back on the radar, and then go back and shoot another special, and then make the mint, you know. But I definitely will say, one of my favorite shows I’m watch right now on Netflix is “Seven Seconds”, so I definitely cannot boycott Netflix. I just can’t do it, I can’t.

And I would say Netflix is also giving a lot of Black people opportunities. There’s a lot of Black actors working and getting work because of Netflix. One of my films that I recently did is about to be on Netflix, so I definitely have to say I’m not mad at Netflix. I just think, you know, next time, just try a different approach. That’s all I would say for Mo’Nique.

ON HER BLENDED FAMILY WITH KEVIN AND ENIKO HART AND MEETING BABY KENZO:

Here’s the thing, I would just have to say people have to understand at the end of the day, you’re going to be family. I look at it like this – my kids, Kevin and Eniko’s baby, Kenzo, who I just actually had the chance to meet last week [the week before last], and he’s so beautiful! He melted my little heart; he really melted my heart. So that’s number one, babies always bring joy. Number two, he’s now related to my kids, so when I see that my kids have a sibling and it’s family, listen, at the end of the day, things happen. What happened was in the past; I’m so far removed from what happened years ago; I’ve done too much to get in a happy place to let anything steal my joy. So I would have to say in life, nothing is permanent – we don’t know. Tomorrow, you know, you could be in love with somebody, and they can walk out of your life, and you don’t know, they could’ve been doing something for years while you thought you had the perfect relationship. You can’t get caught up in stuff – nothing is permanent, and that has taught me. I would say, if anything, my experiences in life have taught me that life will go on. If you choose to wallow in a situation or wallow in something, then that’s your decision, but I chose to keep rising and to keep moving forward. Of course, you know, in the beginning, I was sad, I had to deal with emotions and go through things, but then I realized, you know what, if I see the positive in things…it taught how I got to lean on God. It brought me closer to God and to know where my true strength comes from, which is the Creator. You know, He created me, so I got to understand that this was written a long time ago. He already knew what was going to happen in my life, and I have to press forward. And it also helped to know that with my career, you know what, this is teaching me to go harder with what I want for Torrei because I was in someone else’s shadow versus really going for mine and really going as hard as I wanted to.

When I was six-years-old, I told my parents who I was going to be and what I was going to accomplish in life, and you know, God I guess had to wake me up and show me like Torrei, you’re kind of not really following the dreams and goals I instilled and put in you. So sometimes we don’t know what’s going to happen. And I also believe in finding love again, so I’m focused on, you know, I’m dating, and there’s a special man in my life, who I necessarily won’t put out just yet. But I’m in such a happy place that I’m like, okay, I’m happy – I’m in love. So you never know how life is going to do you or how it’s going to go. And like I said, once again, I did get a chance to meet the new baby, and I have been in touch with Kevin and Eniko, and we’re family, at the end of the day. We’re going to be family – this is what it is, we are now family. Our children are siblings, and so families go through ups and downs. There’s moments when you have a brother or sister who can fight and argue, or people fight and argue with their mother and with their father, but that doesn’t mean you’re going to stay in that place forever. You work it out, you regroup, and you get back to the place where you’re suppose to be, which is amicable and sometimes everybody doesn’t necessarily have to like one another, but as long as there’s respect, and you understand the common goal, which is the kids, everything will work itself out. Get rid of ego, get rid of pride, take all of that out of the situation and focus on the kids, and everything will work itself out.

ON EXPERIENCING SUICIDAL THOUGHTS:

That’s why I say you have to fight for your happiness. I can tell you there were moments when I was suicidal, and I’m okay with speaking on it. There were moments when I felt like, what’s next God? I questioned God, and growing up, I was taught that you don’t question God, but let me tell you, that showed me, no, you question God. You say listen, You created me and You told me I was great. You put this in me, so I need You to show and prove, and there were moments where in that moment, I tell you, the next hour, God would show me or put something in my life to show me exactly who He is. I think it’s a choice – you can choose to be positive, you can choose to let your aura shine in a positive way, even through the pain. There’s things that happen to everybody in life – with Tameka [Foster], when I was on that show [“Atlanta Exes”], I didn’t realize that Tameka had just lost her son, so I don’t know if I could handle that type of pain. Honestly, me losing a relationship, I can deal with that, but honey, losing a child? Man, I went back and apologized to her and let her know how much I love her, how much I respect her, and how much I just admire her as a woman because if I lost my son, I don’t know how I would recover. And sometimes people are so judgmental, and they don’t understand the pain that you’re going through – I’m actually about to cry right now thinking about Tameka and the conversations we’ve had because I pray for her everyday for her to be uplifted and for God to bless her heart and give her peace because losing a loved one, losing a child, that’s nothing easy! So relationships, hey, relationships can come and go, and you can find love again, but you can never replace a child.

ON WHEN SHE EXPERIENCED SUICIDAL THOUGHTS AND OVERCOMING IT ALL:

I choose to not stay in that space, but of course I’ve had dark hours and dark moments like I think everybody, I’m human. These were moments like right around where, of course, when Kevin went public with Eniko at the time. You know, it was hard for me to see that because, you know, that was my husband, that was my family, and to see him move on and so publicly, that was hard for me. So there were days I didn’t want to get out of bed, there were days when I didn’t want to go on and I was like well what do I need to live for? And of course in those moments, I would get calls from my mother, I would get calls from my sister, and they would be like, Torrei, you have kids to live for. You have stuff to look forward to. Trust me, this is nothing. And my mother has been through a lot in life as well, and she told me you are so young, you’ll have so much more, and I look back at those moments now, like dag, did I really think that life was over? Like, oh God, no. It’s so much more that I’m so excited about the future – just seeing my kids grow, and I’ve talked to my kids about this. I never sugarcoat anything with my kids – they know about my darkest moments. I’m very transparent with my kids because if they ever feel like they have these types of moments, I want them to know that they can come and talk to me, and know that mommy went through it, and mommy made it out. I dealt with that situation, I did a lot of praying, I went through fasts, I did the forty-day Ramadan fast, and I connected to God on a whole other level. I did the Daniel fast, you know. I did a lot of writing down people who hurt me in life and releasing it to God, praise dances in my backyard – I just did a lot of work to get to where I am today because it was a choice to be happy because naturally, when I was born, I was just a natural happy spirit, a happy person. That was always me naturally, so I was like, I got to get back to that Torrei, and so I fought for it, and now that that Torrei is back, and not saying that every day is perfect, but I do know when I feel like there’s negative entities trying to come on me, I know how to use the tools that I have to fight them off and stay in my happy place.

To keep up with all of Torrei’s endeavors, be sure to follow her on Twitter @Torrei_Hart or Instagram @torreihart.

Photos include an image by Rachel Melanie photography

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