10 Apr CANDID CONFESSIONS: Mo’Nique Opens Up About Personal Struggle With Her Sexuality & Being In Special Education In School

Comedienne/Award wining actress Mo’Nique has always been known for her bold and unapologetic approach to comedy. However, in her latest Netflix comedy special, “My Name is Mo’Nique,” she takes a different turn and gets candid about two deeply personal topics – her own struggle with sexuality and her experience being in special education during school. Details inside…

Leading up to the premiere of Mo’Nique’s new stand-up comedy special, the award-winning actress teased viewers that they would get to know her on a different level and why she acts the way she does.

“This one right here is personal. When you walk away from this one, you’ll say, ‘Now we understand that woman,'” she said in the trailer.

And she was right.

Mo seemingly “came out as queer” in her recently released Netflix stand-up comedy special, “My Name is Mo’Nique”. And she shared how her sexuality resulted in her keeping a big secret from a family member that adored her.

In the special, “The Parkers” alum opened up about how she opened up about her sexuality to her husband Sidney Hicks, who she calls Daddy, for the first time.

“I said, ‘Daddy, I want to be with another woman sexually.’ And he looked at me, so beautifully and so patient and so loving, and he said, ‘B*tch, me too!’”

Although the Bessie star identifies as not exclusively lesbian, she acknowledges being somewhere along the spectrum of sexuality.

Addressing the audience, she added, “Now I know y’all are looking at me, saying, ‘Wait a minute, b*tch. Are you a motherf*ckin’ d*ke?’ No, I’m not… all the way.”

Rather, she said that she feels “somewhere in between straight and lesbian”.

The Oscar winning actress said that she hid her same-sex attraction and tried to change her sexual orientation by sleeping with men. She shared she hid her attraction to females due to how her grandmother’s dedication to Christianity.

The Almost Christmas star said she never came out to her religious grandmother because of her strained relationship with her own transgender child, a person who Mo’Nique affectionately referred to as “Uncle Tina.”

“See, my grandmother could not come to grips that she had a gay daughter. She could only love her privately. She couldn’t love her publicly because the Church had my grandmother f*cked up. That goddamn Church, baby, in our communities will do some sh*t to us and rip apart motherf*ckin’ families, just like it’s going out of goddamn style. And they’ll put ‘In the name of Jesus’ in front of it. And I watched that sh*t happen to my sweet grandmother.”

She continued, “Christianity taught my grandmother that she had failed as a parent because she had a ‘sinful’ queer child,” Mo’Nique shared. Witnessing the distance between her grandmother and her transgender uncle made Mo’Nique felt like she couldn’t come out to her elder before she died.

“I felt cowardly when my grandmother left,” she said, “because I couldn’t tell my grandmother who her granddaughter really was. ‘Cause I didn’t want to be loved privately… I couldn’t tell my grandmother my secret thoughts. And my fantasies ‘cause I didn’t want her to love me privately, and I did not want her to leave this Earth thinking she was a failure. ‘Cause had I told her my secret thoughts, she would’ve left thinking that she failed.”

Peep the clip below:

Mo’Nique comes out in new Netflix special pic.twitter.com/ND5UKeP3NB

— Eva Styles (@MissEvaStyles) April 6, 2023

Mo revealed that her Uncle Tina experienced alcoholism and homelessness, something that trans people are disproportionately more likely to face due to rejection from their families and transphobic societal discrimination.

However, the comedian honored her trans relative and all queer people when she said “you babies in the LGBTQ community, I want y’all to hear me. I respect every-motherf*ckin’-body in here free enough to be their goddamn selves.”

In the beginning of her special, Mo shared a personal anecdote from her childhood about being placed in special education from seventh to ninth grade. She recalled feeling out of place in the class after seeing a fellow student eating glue.

Despite this confusion, she humorously attributes her placement in special ed to her mother’s illiteracy. Mo fired off several jokes about how she ended up in special ed and how it was likely due to her mother not being able to read. Peep some reactions below: 

So it’s okay for Mo’nique to talk about and make fun of special education kids nobody saying anything about that! When people talk about LGBTQ IN COMEDY, it’s a big problem and people want them shut down! Shut her down too!!! That’s very bogus and insensitive to joke about

— Stacey (@staceynh) April 10, 2023

Might catch some heat but… Ngl My name is Mo’nique is trash… im not a conservator by any means…. But literally every other word is an expletive. And the just bc you were enrolled in “special Ed” doesn’t mean you get to demean others…. So trash. #monique #mynameismonique

— Trishhhh (@trishadotj) April 4, 2023

Twenty minutes into this Mo’nique Netflix special and she still making Special Ed jokes. I was really rooting for her, but I need her to turn this around.

— shaad (@rashaaddenzel) April 5, 2023

Watching Mo’Nique’s special now, and I really like it. I think the thing is these are the jokes we tell ourselves to get through stuff like the frustration of being labeled “special ed” or the shame of becoming your family’s & God’s disappointment. https://t.co/hQlK0zVd5Y

— That Woman in 12B (@lyfeisacomedy) April 9, 2023

For people who saw the Mo’nique Netflix special, was it funny?
Can you name 2 signature jokes from it that made you laugh?

After 25 mins of special Ed “jokes” with just one smile I couldn’t give her an hour.
Those 45 yr old experiences sounded like unresolved trauma than jokes.

— Kokopelli (@KokopelliEnt) April 8, 2023

Y’all crazy! This Mo’Nique Netflix comedy special is hilarious! Her special ed bit had me CRINE!

— Nye the Songwriter Guy (@nyethesongwrita) April 8, 2023

Viewers definitely got to see a side of Mo’Nique they’ve never seen before. If you watched, what did you think about the special?

Photo: Netflix

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