Steve Harvey
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E STEV Y HARVE FROM HOMELESS TO HAVING IT ALL ONCE COMPLETELY BROKE AND LIVING OUT OF HIS CAR, STEVE HARVEY OPENS UP ABOUT HIS YEARS OF STRUGGLING AND HOW HIS WIFE HELPED MAKE HIM THE MAN—AND THE MULTIMILLIONAIRE—HE IS TODAY By EMILY STROHM | Photographs by ANDREW HETHERINGTON “I can’t imagine my life without St says Marjorie eve,” (a couple’s t the home in “I knew Atlanta). this was the momen right from t we fir and talk st met ed all nigh He serenade t. with d me ‘Adore.’ ” 42 June 6, 2016 PEOPLE PEOPLE June 6, 2016 43 In the backyard of his opulent five-story Atlanta mansion, Steve Harvey cracks open a bottle of red wine and lights up a cigar from his walk-in humidor. “It kills me when I hear very successful people say, ‘I always knew I would get here,’ ” he says, shaking his head. “I didn’t. I always hoped I would get somewhere, but this is above and beyond. My imagination didn’t even go this big.” These days the comedian, author and talk show host is at the helm of an empire estimated to be worth $100 million, a fortune amassed from lucra- tive stand-up appearances, bestselling books and movieadaptations,andmultipleTVandradiogigs. But when he was starting out, Harvey, 59, was bare- ly able to get by. After ending his first marriage to chase his dream of becoming a stand-up comedi- an in his late 20s, Harvey wound up homeless for three years, surviving on bologna sandwiches and living out of a Ford Tempo. To make it to gigs, he had to steal fuel from gas stations. “It was crush- ing,” he says. “I realized, ‘You’re on your own. You have nothing or no one.’ All I knew was that I could make people laugh.” After finally landing a high-profile gig perform- “You ’ve got to hav ing on Showtime at the Apollo in 1993, Harvey e dreams and began seeing professional success, but his personal visions, something you ’re shooting life was in shambles. He remarried and divorced sa for,” ys Harvey (inside a second time before reconnecting with the wom- cus his tom pro golf an who would become his current wife, Marjorie. ‘I knew I is simple. “I’m running from shop at home). The two had briefly dated while he was struggling, homelessness,” he says. “I can’t but Harvey had been too ashamed of his financial was funny ever be in that position again. If my situation to pursue the relationship. Reuniting and I knew show gets canceled, I’ve got three more. I don’t “was a second chance,” he says. “It was like being I could have any free time, but I have 12 jobs.” reborn. I messed up so many times in my life. make people HAIR: (MARJORIE) WILLIAM PHOENIX; STYLIST: SAJ MACK/ZENOBIA; (STEVE) GROOMER: She made all the difference. When you’re happy at laugh. I was PROP BALLEW/ZENOBIA; ROBERT STYLIST: GOWER; COURTNEY MAKEUP: WHITE; DAWN home, you can make a lot of things happen.” trying to Raised by Jesse, a coal miner, and Eloise, a Sunday- LEIGH TEMPLE/ZENOBIA STYLIST: FOOD FINKELSTEIN/ZENOBIA; ANITA STYLIST: That has certainly proved to be true. Since his school teacher, in Cleveland, Harvey dreamed of marriage to Marjorie, 51, in 2007, his bestselling chase this eventually being on TV like his then-idol Bill 2009 book Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Man has dream so Cosby. “I didn’t have an inkling or a clue of how to been adapted into a blockbuster film and a sequel. hard’ ever get on TV,” he admits. “I had a stuttering prob- He now hosts a syndicated radio show as well as —STEVE HARVEY lem, and I was from the ’hood.” Harvey was a the game show Family Feud and a popular day- 28-year-old college dropout working as an insur- time talk show, Steve Harvey. Most recently he ance salesman when he tried stand-up for the first has hosted NBC’s hit variety series Little Big time, in 1985. “I had never even heard of a comedy Shots. “Steve Harvey is lightning in a bottle,” says club,” he says. “I didn’t even know they existed.” Paul Telegdy, president of alternative and late- When he won the $50 first-place prize on his first night programming at NBC. “Steve is not short on shot, Harvey quit his job the next day—a decision dreams and vision,” adds Marjorie. “He always that did not go over well with his wife at the time, has 25 projects.” His reason for working so hard Marcia. “I’m married, I have twins [Brandi and 44 June 6, 2016 PEOPLE Karli, now 33]. I’m supposed to provide for them, but I had to take this chance,” he says. In his first HIS BIG 1 year Harvey made just $3,000 as a comedian. He and his wife separated (eventually finalizing BUSINESS their divorce in 1994). His relationship with his 1. Harvey (during his daughters fell apart. “Years later they said to me, stand-up tour in the ‘Dad, we didn’t understand why you left us, but early ’90s) “is a great guy with a great vision,” we know now you had to go. You didn’t just belong says a friend, fellow to us. You belonged to the world,’ ” Harvey says. stand-up comedian “That was emotional for me.” Sheryl Underwood. “Tome,he’salways Sending 75 percent of his sporadic paychecks seemed to have it to Marcia to support the children, Harvey was together.” 2. “It living on as little as $50 per week and couldn’t opened the door for afford an apartment. “That was an ugly period, me,”Harveysaysof his 2009 bestseller. “It just very painful,” he says of becoming homeless convinced people to in the late ’80s. Occasionally comedy clubs would stop pigeonholing me. put him up for a night in a hotel; otherwise he was I’m really a crossover forced to go to the bathroom in the woods and guy, and this message appealed to a wide shower at rest stops, keeping what little food he range of people.” could scrape together in an Igloo cooler on his 3. Taraji P. Henson and backseat. “Everybody has a moment when they Michael Ealy starred turn back, when you say to yourself, ‘This is too in the blockbuster adaptation of Think much,’ ” he says. “I had it on several occasions.” Like a Man. 4. Once While attempting to wash up at a hotel restroom Harvey signed on for one night between gigs, he found himself stuck Little Big Shots, “I hiding in a stall for hours waiting to rinse the soap knew I had a successful show,” says Warner Bros. exec Mike Darnell. 5. With Hillary Clinton a vivid “I had on the set of The Steve tion as imagina Harvey Show. a kid. I always wanted to be on TV,” says 2 Harvey. 3 IMAGES SCHEAR/NBC/GETTY JEFF IMAGES; FELD/NBC/GETTY DANNY PETER ZAMBOUROS; EVERETT; STEVE HARVEY; COURTESY TOP: FROM 4 5 46 “The when his longtime bodyguard confronted him. life I have now, I would lo “He told me, ‘Look, the only time I’ve ever seen ve to take credit for this, you happy was when you were with that but ther e’s no way I saw this woman Marjorie. Now before you go and do coming,” sa something stupid and marryanother woman, ys Harve y. I’m calling her.’ ” Divorced herself, Marjorie was excited to hear from Harvey. “When Steve came back into my life, it was effortless,” she says. “I only wish he’d told me what was really going on with him when we were first dating. I told him, ‘I owned my house. Honey, you wouldn’t have been home- less.’ We could have saved so much time.” The pair wed in 2007 and merged their com- bined seven children (Steve’s twins with Marcia and sons Broderick, 25, and Wynton, 18, with Mary, plus Marjorie’s children Morgan, 29, Jason, 24, and Lori, 19, from her previous marriage). The children were notthrilled.“I said,‘Look, you don’t like it? Deal with it. I don’t need y’all’s permis- sion,’ ” Harvey recalls. Marjorie took a different approach. “When you’re dealing with a blended family, everyone is coming from a place of bro- ken,” she says. “We knew this was right. But I just told them, ‘Everyone is included. Everyone has access to their parents. Whatever you didn’t have before, don’t let that interfere with what you can have now.’ ” Her words hit home. “Now,” she says, “we’re Mom and Dad to everybody.” Harvey has relied on his wife’s calm wisdom throughout their nine-year marriage as he’s built ‘Marjorie off his body in the sink. “People kept coming in,” he his career to new heights—and also dealt with says. “So I had to wait. I sat down and started crying, some blows. In December, when he accidentally stood out but a voice said, ‘If you keep going, I’m going to take crowned the wrong Miss Universe on live televi- from other you places you’ve never been.’ It was like God said, sion, the aftermath—including parodies mocking women. ‘Don’t quit, you’re almost there.’ ” That’s when Har- him for crowning Miss Colombia instead of Miss She was vey got the call to perform at the Apollo.