Naysimone

By Naysimone |

Mo’Nique and Lee Daniels Reconcile

April Fool’s Day on the internet is a weird place. You can’t believe anything you read, but also, smart celebrities will put out real stories and hope they get lost in the cloud of nonsense. However, something real and amazing did happen on Friday.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Oscar-winning actress Mo’Nique and writer/director Lee Daniels have ended their 13-year feud. In a video posted to Twitter, he joined the actress on stage at her “Mo’Nique and Friends: April Fools Day with The Queen of Comedy” show at the St. George Theatre on Staten Island, and finally apologized publicly to the star, saying, “I am so sorry for hurting you in any way that I did.”

The pair have been feuding since working together on 2009’s Precious. Mo’Nique chose not to participate in the film’s awards campaign—which included attending parties and events in support of the critically-acclaimed project—for the film during awards season, as it meant more time away from her family. She eventually won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress but didn’t get the career bump that usually comes with such a big win. In the aftermath of the situation, she accused Daniels, Oprah Winfrey and Tyler Perry–the film’s producers–of blackballing her in the industry, leading to a lack of subsequent offers.

While on stage at Mo’Nique’s comedy event on Friday, The United States vs. Billie Holiday director continued the reconciliation, stating, “She was my best friend—my best friend. Y’all think that Precious was just…That was God working, through both of us.” This is a far cry from his 2015 statement to The Hollywood Reporter saying: “Mo’Nique is a creative force to be reckoned with. Her demands through Precious were not always in line with the campaign. This soured her relationship with the Hollywood community. I consider her a friend. I have and will always think of her for parts that we can collaborate on. However, the consensus among the creative teams and powers thus far were to go another way with these roles.”

It’s truly nice to see these two artists finally burying the hatchet after years of comments and shade thrown back and forth. Hollywood is too hard for Black creatives for them to be fighting amongst one another. Apparently, the duo has already set their next collaboration as Daniels seemed to confirm the Deadline report that Mo’Nique will co-star in his new Netflix film Demon House, exclaiming, “And we’re gonna fucking do it again!” In the upcoming release, Mo’Nique will play a social worker helping Andra Day and her family through a controversial exorcism.

In case the last two years haven’t made it clear, time is not promised. Do not wait to call that friend you haven’t spoken to in years, because chances are you don’t even remember why you started fighting. If you take nothing else away from this story, life is too short to let things like this fester for 13 years.