Kevin Hart’s first wife, Torrei, was reportedly feeling vindicated Monday after her ex was caught cheating on his new (and heavily pregnant) second wife, Eniko Parrish, who had previously accused Torrei of “playing the victim” over the breakdown of her marriage to Hart.
Now, Torrei, the comedian’s college sweetheart who married him in 2003 and divorced him in 2011, has confirmed those rumors of schaudenfreude by coming out and giving an interview to Inside Edition in which she makes it abundantly clear that there is no love lost between her, Hart, or Parrish, and said she blames “lies and infidelity” for the failure of her marriage.
Just last month, Torrei was accused by Parrish, whom Hart married in 2016, of “playing the victim” over the failure of her marriage to Hart.
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Parrish stirred up the controversy when she a shared a photo from her wedding recently, writing in a caption, “Eight years together. One year married. Forever to go!"
But Kevin and Torrei only divorced six years ago, kicking off a war of words on social media between the two women about whether or not Parrish had effectively started a relationship with a man already in one.
Although she acknowledged he was technically still married when they met, Parrish defended her relationship with Hart, saying: “Their marriage was broken way before I came in the picture. They were separated, living in separate homes. I was never a secret. She knew that as well.”
In the Inside Edition interview, Torrei takes issue with that claim, saying: “I was like, what ‘never a secret?’ She said we were separated, not living together. That’s a lie. We were very much not separated.”
In a later post, Parrish doubled down on the claim, saying: “She wanted to play the victim and not own up to her wrongdoings as well. Singled me out as the mistress because we stuck… knowing damn well there was other women during their marriage. But I never wrecked any home. That was never the case and people ran with it. Only WE know how it really went down.”
Torrei responded to Parrish, saying: “Eniko, sweetheart, normally I don’t feed into this but when you addressed me, you forced my hand to respond. We have made successful strides to become a loving co-parenting family, but you have now left it open for my character to be questioned. You, Kevin, and I know the truth.”
Now, Torrei, 39, has spilled the detail to Inside Edition.
“When I met him, he was selling sneakers,” Torrei said. “He starts to get fame and I’m feeling, OK, well, a little left behind. We grew apart.”
When asked whether she thought her ex-husband was capable of cheating again, Torrei said: “I can’t say yes, I can’t say no. All I can say is if it happened to me, it could happen to anyone.”
Hart was also criticized by Torrei for using his infidelity as material for comic routines.
“I have an ex-husband who has repeatedly used me in his stand-up routine,” she said. “For years, I had to endure that.”
Hart this weekend confessed to cheating in an Instagram video, saying he was making the admission because he didn’t want to pay out to an alleged extortionist who reportedly has video of of Hart in a sexually provocative situation with a woman who is not his wife.
“It’s a shitty moment. It’s a shitty moment when you know you are wrong and there’s no excuses for your wrong behavior,” Hart said. “At the end of the day, man, I just simply got to do better. But I’m also not going to allow a person to have financial gain off of my mistakes. In this particular situation that was what was attempted. I said I’d rather fess up to my mistakes.”
The LAPD and FBI are investigating the alleged extortion plot.
TMZ has reported allegations that the woman seen in the video with Hart was a 27-year-old stripper, Montia Sabbag, whom he allegedly met during a weekend in Vegas last month. The site says she has denied making the tape or the extortion attempt.
