Comedian/Actor Tracy Morgan is responding to reports that he is offering little or no financial assistance to keep her from losing her house to foreclosure. Morgan says he barely has a relationship with his mother and most of his family, reports E! News.
“I am saddened that these untrue stories about me have people questioning my commitment to my family,” Morgan said in a statement. “For reasons that are between us, I have not seen my Mother in 11 years and outside of a random call here and there have had little to no contact with my sister.”
Morgan was prompted to defend himself after his younger sister, Asia Morgan, told the New York Daily News on Tuesday that her multimillionaire brother was a “douchebag” for refusing to give their mom, Alicia Warden, anything more than a one-time payment of $2,000—despite the fact that she owes almost $25,000 on her northeast Ohio home.
Even though Forbes estimated Morgan’s net worth at around $18 million, the fact that the comic agreed to cough up so little wasn’t much of a surprise in their opinion.
“Because of the way he’s treating our mother, all bets are off,” said Asia. “He’s never been a nice person and money’s just made it worse.”
“We all have personal family issues that we have to deal with in life, but I choose to deal with mine in private and not through the media,” he added.
Morgan was equally coy about the family feud in the introduction to his 2009 memoir, I Am the New Black.
“As of this moment, I’m estranged from my own mother and most of my family, and I’m not sure that’s going to change much. I’m not saying why, I’m just saying that’s how it is,” he wrote. “It’s okay though. I’ve gotten used to it. I’m an island, kind of like Antigua: hot and humid, definitely a destination of choice if you want to get freaky or just kick back. And pretty isolated.”
Morgan has had a rough year. He sparked outrage among LGBT activists over a homophobic rant uttered during his stand-up act last June, for which Morgan has since apologized for, and last week a health scare at Sundance landed him briefly in the hospital.
