Martin Lawrence and Tisha Campbell Say They're 'Good' Despite Harassment Lawsuit in the '90s
Former Martin costars Martin Lawrence and Tisha Campbell are addressing new comments he made regarding her 1997 lawsuit accusing him of sexual harassment.
In a recent interview with GQ magazine ahead of his new movie Bad Boys for Life, Lawrence addressed the decision to end his hit ’90s sitcom Martin in 1997 after five seasons.
“Well, how can I say this?” said Lawrence, 54. “It just was time to end. Let’s just put it that way. It was just, at that time, there was some, um, there were some things that was being said that —”
When the GQ reporter interjected to ask if he was referring to Campbell’s lawsuit, Lawrence responded, “Yeah,” adding, “None of that was true. It was all a lot of bulls—.”
“We don’t need to talk about something that just didn’t happen,” the actor continued. “So I just decided to walk away from the show. I just decided to end it. People said that I got canceled, but that wasn’t the case. I decided to just leave the show.”
“I love Tisha,” Lawrence added. “I’ve seen her then and now, now and then, always with nothing but love. I have nothing but love for her, and I always have.”
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During an appearance on The Talk days after the GQ interview was published, Campbell, 51, addressed the comments Lawrence made seemingly dismissing her lawsuit. The actress said that she was “shocked,” but added that the two are now in a “good place.”
“I can’t go into much detail about the past because there was a confidentiality agreement, so the gag order says no. But, what I can say is, to your question, I was actually kind of shocked,” she said in Thursday’s episode.
“I took a day, and I said, ‘I’m just gonna hit him up.’ So I hit [Lawrence] up. He called me within a minute … he was like, ‘Don’t read into what it is, there’s a lot of people that’s trying to bring up the past, and trying to make it news today. But, you know T, we’re good. I love you, I love your family.'”
She continued: “Again, I’m not going to go into details, because I want to respect his privacy and I want to respect mine. But I will say, by the end of it, it was nothing but laughter and healing. And I got a chance to experience that. And I’m so glad that we’re in a good place right now.”
The two actors have reportedly been spending time together recently, and Lawrence addressed the current status of their relationship in an Instagram post on Thursday.
“Regardless of the past or any misrepresentation of it in the press, I have nothin but love for Tisha then and now,” he wrote. “We are good and always will be!”
A post shared by Martin Lawrence (@martinlawrence) on Jan 16, 2020 at 3:32pm PST
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The acclaimed Fox sitcom Martin went off the air in 1997 amid the actors’ rift, with Campbell accusing Lawrence of sexual harassment and agreeing only to return for the show’s final season if they never shot scenes together.
Campbell accused Lawrence of “repeated and escalating sexual harassment, sexual battery, verbal abuse and related threats.” Both sides were ultimately settled out of court.
