Mo’Nique dishes on why she calls husband Sidney Hicks ‘daddy’
'He’s giving me everything that my father did not,' the veteran comedian says
Mo’Nique was a guest on Tamar Braxton’s new podcast, Under Construction, earlier this week.
During the episode, the award-winning comedian/actress discussed the dynamics of her relationship with her husband, Sidney Hicks, including the rationale for referring to him as “daddy.”
“When people say to me, ‘Why do you call him Daddy?’” said Mo’Nique, igniting laughter from Braxton.
“I tell them: ‘because he’s raising me. He’s giving me everything that my father did not.'”
READ MORE: Federal judge sides with Mo’Nique in Netflix discrimination lawsuit
She made the comment after telling an anecdote from the early years of her second marriage when Hicks, whom she married in 2006, expressed his desire to treat her “like a lady.” Mo’Nique told Braxton she “didn’t know how to respond to that,” before segueing into explaining why she calls him daddy, saying it can sometimes be “embarrassing.”
“See, there ain’t nobody else in the room and he’s had to say some things to me, Tamar, that has taken me to my knees, and then he’ll pick me back up and he’ll say: ‘Is anything I’m saying to you not true?’” the Flavor of Love Girls: Charm School host said.
“And I’ll say, ‘Everything you’re saying to me is true, but right now, n*gga, my ego — I need you to walk away, because the crazy b—- inside of me, she getting ready to say something and mess up the moment,'” Mo’Nique said to Braxton’s light laughter. “‘I know she’s coming. Here she come. She getting ready to come out the basement.’ And then he loved all of us through it. He loved all of us through it.”
The comments can be heard at the 21:15 mark in the video below.
She went on to send a message to fellow Black women that they should be able to allow their partners to do the same thing.
“Y’all, please, if you have a good one, let your guard down and let it happen. You’re going to hear some sh– that’s going to shock you because when you’ve got a king, he’s got to prepare you to be the queen,” she said. “And so many of us ain’t got the queen training, so when we get the king, we don’t know what to do with this sh–.”
The comic has never shied away from talking about her marriage in public. Over the years, she’s been very candid about having an open marriage with Hicks, which, as she told talk show host Andy Cohen in a 2016 episode of Watch What Happens Live, was her idea.
She even took a moment to plug her podcast, Mo’Nique & Sidney’s Open Relationship.
“When we first had the conversation, it was because I was still in the mindset of, ‘I’m an entertainer. I’m a performer, and I want to have it all.’ So I said ‘You know what, I want to have an open marriage.’ And he said, ‘Mo’Nique, we’ve been best friends since the 10th grade. Do you think that’s going to stop us from loving one another?'”
“‘It was just being able to sit down and have that dialogue to say, ‘hey, let’s always make sure we’re open and honest,'” she said.
Mo’Nique and Hicks share twin sons.
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