Martin Lawrence is finally opening up about Tisha Campbell’s sexual harassment lawsuit against him.
In an interview with Zach Baron of GQ, he talks about the upcoming release of his new movie, Bad Boys For Life, and why his hit show “Martin” ended. Here’s an excerpt from the article below.
Baron asked Lawrence about why “Martin” ended. He replied, “Well, how can I say this? It just was time to end. Let’s just put it that way. It was just, at that time, there was some, um, there were some things that was being said that—”
Baron interrupted him and asked, “You’re talking about Tisha Campbell’s lawsuit?” Lawrence replied, “Yeah. Yeah.”
Baron brought up the fact that he noticed they had been spending time together lately. Lawrence replied, “Yeah. Because none of that was true. It was all a lot of bullshit.”
Baron asked whether or not Campbell and Lawrence ever talked about the lawsuit. Lawrence replied, “We don’t need to talk about something that just didn’t happen. So I just decided to walk away from the show. I just decided to end it. People said that I got canceled, but that wasn’t the case. I decided to just leave the show.”
Baron then asked, “Do you understand Tisha’s perspective differently now than you did then?”
“I love Tisha. I’ve seen her then and now, now and then, always with nothing but love,” Lawrence replied. “I have nothing but love for her, and I always have.”
In 1997, Campbell sued Lawrence for sexual harassment, on and off the screen. According to an article by JET, Campbell listed sexual battery, verbal abuse, yelling and threatening her on set, groping her when they filmed scenes in bed, and attempting to kiss her with tongue in her lawsuit. She refused to film scenes with Lawrence during season five of “Martin,” and the show ultimately ended after that season.
In Feb. 2018, Campbell and Lawrence seemingly put their differences aised and reunited with Tichina Arnold. Lawrence posted photos of the trio out for lunch and captioned the photos, “In the words of Ice Cube, today was a good day With @tishacampbellmartin & @tichinaarnold.” Just weeks after reuniting with her former castmates, Campbell filed for divorce from her husband, Duane Martin.
As for now, it seems like Campbell and Lawrence are in a good place. It would be great to hear what really happened between the two from Campbell’s perspective.