Comedian Kevin Hart is fighting back against gossip blogger LaTasha Kebe (better known as Tasha K) and his former assistant Miesha Shakes, who he says shook him down for a quarter million dollars and violated an NDA, respectively.
Hart first filed a defamation and extortion lawsuit against the pair in December, after Shakes allegedly broke her NDA with Hart for a sit down interview with Tasha K during which she exposed “matters related to the private lives and employment status of individuals employed by [Kevin Hart Enterprises],” according to the filing. Shakes had previously parted ways with Hart’s employment on “negative terms,” the filing also says.
In the interview with Tasha K, the filing says that Shakes stated that Hart “had engaged [in] an intimate relationship with a woman in [his] employ” and “also discussed Hart’s personnel decisions surrounding that incident, all private information,” as described in the lawsuit.
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The filing also states that an anonymous caller alerted Hart's representative that the video interview would go live unless he paid Tasha K $250,000. After refusing to pay the sum, the video was published, prompting Hart to file the suit against Shakes and Tasha K. In January, Hart lost his bid to have the video removed.
In March, the comedian updated the filing, adding new details, including an allegation that Shakes had “eavesdropped” on his private conversations. The filing states that Shakes even says as much in the interview, admitting to putting her “ear to the wall” and “going through a Hart employee’s office.”
The new filing also denies Shakes’ assertion in said interview that Hart “purportedly recorded a video of a sexual encounter and faced criminal charges regarding that supposed incident,” referencing the lawsuit from model Montia Sabbag, who sued Hart in 2019 after the pair were secretly filmed in a Vegas hotel room during a sexual encounter. “In actuality, Hart did not have any involvement in recording the referenced video and has never faced criminal charges in connection with the incident,” the filing clarifies.
Hart states that he has suffered damage to his reputation as a result of the interview, and is seeking compensatory and punitive damages, as well as reimbursement for attorney fees and the cost of the suits.
The Daily Beast has reached out to Kevin Hart, Miesha Shakes and Tasha K for comment.
