Steve Harvey has come out fighting after receiving some backlash over a leaked memo he sent to staff on his self titled talk show.
The memo outlined a number of situations where Harvey was insistent that staff should not approach or engage with him unless they had previously made an appointment. The letter was allegedly sent to the press by a former staff member from Chicago who was not invited to work on the show when it re-locates to Los Angeles later this year.
The comedian and talk show host spoke with Entertainment Tonight yesterday and clarified why he sent the memo and insisted that he would not be apologising over it.
“I could not find a way to walk from the stage to my dressing room, to sit in my makeup chair, to walk from my dressing room to the stage or to just sit and have lunch without somebody just walking in,” he said. “I’ve always had a policy where, you know, you can come and talk to me — so many people are great around here, but some of them just started taking advantage of it.”
“I’m in my makeup chair, they walk in the room. I’m having lunch, they walk in, they don’t knock. I’m in the hallway, I’m getting ambushed by people with friends that come to the show and having me sign this and do this. I just said, ‘Wait a minute.’ And in hindsight, I probably should’ve handled it a little bit differently.”
Although he said he should have handled things differently, he insisted that he would not be apologising over it.
“I don’t apologize about the letter, but it’s kind of crazy what people who took this thing and ran, man.”