The long-awaited “Fresh Prince of Bel-Air” reunion aired last week, and fans were finally able to see the cast come together, reminisce and even reenact some of their favorite scenes from the 90s sitcom.
In one of the biggest moments of the 30th year anniversary special, the orginal Aunt Viv — who was later replaced by Daphne Maxwell Reid — resolved her 27-year feud with Will Smith before joining her former cast members and meeting Maxwell for the first time. Alfonso Ribeiro — who played the role of Carlton Banks — was absent during the get-together, but he insists it wasn’t the result of any tension.
During an interview with the Hollywood Reporter, he explained that the reunion conflicted with his gig for “America’s Funniest Home Videos.” “Unfortunately, I had to go shoot that day. All of the social media content and the photographs were taken without me,” Ribeiro explained. “I literally did my own photoshoot on the couch so they could put me in the group photo. The actual special was filmed in one day, but all the other stuff was done on the other days.”
Hubert and Ribeiro had their own feud following her departure from the show. In 2017, after the former “Dancing with the Stars” contestant posted a photo with some of the “Fresh Prince” cast, she took to Facebook and expressed her thoughts on the actors reuniting without her.
“I know the media hoe Alphonso Ribero has posted his so-called reunion photo. Folks keep telling me about it,” she wrote at the time. “He was always the ass wipe for Will. 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.”
When fans speculated about the reason for Ribeiro’s absence in the recent special, she hopped on social media again, this time tweeting, “Don’t assume. He was working, and I wasn’t there. Let it go sweetie, we have.”