In an interview with ET, Steve Harvey confirmed that a letter making the rounds of the internet was, in fact, sent out to his staff by him.
The letter, which berated staff for coming into his dressing room and demanded his privacy, was his attempt to force normalcy on his life, he said.
“I don’t apologize about the letter, but it’s kind of crazy what people who took this thing and ran, man,” he told ET. “I just didn’t want to be in this prison anymore where I had to be in this little room, scared to go out and take a breath of fresh air without somebody approaching me, so I wrote the letter.”
— Steve Harvey skips staff party after memo demanding privacy —
The letter read: “There will be no meetings in my dressing room. No stopping by or popping in. NO ONE. Do not come to my dressing room unless invited. Do not open my dressing room door. IF YOU OPEN MY DOOR, EXPECT TO BE REMOVED. I have been taken advantage of by my lenient policy in the past. This ends now. NO MORE. … I am seeking more free time for me throughout the day. … Everyone, do not take offense to the new way of doing business. It is for the good of my personal life and enjoyment.”
Harvey explained to ET that it was necessary to make the request in order to have any privacy. “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. “Look man, 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.”