Tyler Perry opened up about making the choice to cut his family off financially — and even fired his aunt from a job.
During the Sunday, July 20, episode of the “Den of Kings” YouTube series, Perry, 55, spoke to host Kirk Franklin and fellow guests Derrick Hayes and Jeezy about the complications that come with hiring faintly members to work for you.
“[My aunt] said she wanted a job. She would always call asking for money. I said, ‘OK,’ I would send her the money,” Perry recalled. “But then I was like, ‘Listen, I want to help you. I want to help you build this thing, not be welfare to you. So, let me give you a job.’”
Perry claimed his aunt ended up not coming to work.
“So, I’m like, ‘OK, well you gotta go,’” he said. “You want me to hand you the money, but you don’t want to work for it. See, that doesn’t work for me.”
The producer didn’t enforce that boundary with only his aunt. Perry went on to share how he has instilled a strong work ethic in his 10-year-old son, Aman.
“There are certain things that he wants,” he explained. “He has to do chores and work for it. I don’t believe in just giving us things that are just going to handicap us. That is the worst thing you can do.”
Elsewhere in the interview, Perry discussed setting up ground rules with his family after his mom died in 2009. Perry recalled sending letters to his loved ones telling them to get jobs within 60 days because he was planning to stop financially supporting them. The director confirmed that “they all got jobs” after he put his foot down.
Perry rose to stardom by writing, starring in, directing and producing his own projects. His most notable work is centered around an original character named Mabel “Madea” Simmons, but Perry has also expanded his TV and film universe with long-running projects on OWN and BET.
Perry recently made headlines when Derek Dixon accused him of sexual assault and harassment in a $260 million lawsuit. Us Weekly confirmed that Dixon filed a lawsuit against Perry and Tyler Perry Studios in Los Angeles in June. The actor, who appeared on Perry’s BET series The Oval starting in 2021, is suing for quid pro quo sexual harassment, sexual battery, sexual assault, intentional infliction of emotional distress and retaliation, among other accusations, which Perry denied.
“This is an individual who got close to Tyler Perry for what now appears to be nothing more than setting up a scam,” Perry’s attorney Matthew Boyd shared in a statement. “But Tyler will not be shaken down and we are confident these fabricated claims of harassment will fail.”
Dixon, meanwhile, broke his silence on the lawsuit earlier this month.
“I couldn’t just let him get away with this,” Dixon told The Hollywood Reporter in his first interview since the accusations went public. “Everyone deserves to go to work and do their job without their boss trying to have sex with them.”
Dixon said his “goal” with the suit is to “help ensure that the next generation of actors and creatives don’t have to choose between their dreams and their dignity.”
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