Janet Hubert, original ‘Aunt Viv’ from ‘Fresh Prince’, defends open letter to Wendy Williams

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Janet Hubert is best known from her role as the sassy, witty, and out-going Aunt Vivian on the 90’s sitcom The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.

Hubert was later unexpectedly replaced by Daphne Reid, however to this day Hubert says she still gets recognized as the original Vivian Banks.

Last week Hubert became a media sensation after penning an open letter to talk show host Wendy Williams over her recent interview with Tatyana Ali, who played Hubert’s on-screen daughter Ashley Banks.

Williams probed into the reported feud between Hubert and that the show’s star Will Smith, stirring up further interest on the alleged beef between the two, prompting Hubert to release a letter to Williams via her Blogtalkradio program.

“I was at home minding my business. I got up and I was listening to the interview and suddenly I’m hearing my name, and I’m going ‘no she didn’t,’” Hubert revealed in part 1 of her interview with theGrio’s Chris Witherspoon. “Janet Hubert is the kind of person that if you leave me alone I’ll leave you alone, and the thing for me was I live in Jersey, she lives in Jersey and my whole feeling was, ‘Miss Thang’ if you really want to know something about me, all you had to do was pick up the phone. It just struck a nerve and she got me on the wrong day.”

Hubert explained that this is not the first open letter that she wrote to Williams. Last year, after Whitney Houston died, claiming the talk show host slandered Houston’s name throughout her career. The Fresh Prince star is willing to accept an apology from Wendy, but does not foresee making any appearances on her The Wendy Williams Show anytime soon.

“I would accept her offer for forgiveness but I would not appear on her show. Her talk show to me is a platform of hatred. It’s a bully platform. If she simply cut out the hot topics part of it, I think it would be a really lovely show. Back in the day people like Johnny Carson; they had improvisational talent. Ellen DeGeneres is brilliant. She’s funny, she’s warm and she doesn’t hurt anybody on her show. Oprah, same thing, she uplifted her audience; she made people feel good about themselves.”

Part 2 of her interview with theGrio, Hubert sets the record straight on why she left The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air and what her message is for Will Smith today.

Follow Chris Witherspoon on Twitter at @WitherspoonC