On September 16, 2017, Kevin Hart posted a personal video message on Instagram addressed to his wife of one year, Eniko Parrish, and his children from a previous relationship, daughter Heaven and son Hendrix. Hart said he had made a “bad error in judgment” and had put himself in an environment where only bad things could happen. The post followed reports that someone was attempting to extort him over a sexually suggestive recording involving Hart and another woman. Rather than pay the alleged extortion demand, Hart chose to acknowledge the situation publicly and apologize to his family.
In the video, Hart admitted that he was not perfect, said he knew he had hurt the people closest to him, and stated that there were no excuses for his behavior. At the same time, he framed the public statement as a refusal to let someone profit financially from his mistake, saying he would rather “fess up” than give in to the extortion attempt. Several days after the plot surfaced, reports indicated that the FBI had identified a suspect, though early coverage did not immediately release the person’s name. Hart’s response combined mortification, attacking the accuser, and bolstering by apologizing to his family, characterizing the other party as an extortionist, and emphasizing his refusal to allow someone else to profit from the scandal.
Key Apologia Strategies:
Mortification, Attacking the Accuser, Bolstering
Video
Transcript
Um, I’m at a place in my life where I feel like I have a target on my back. And because of that I should make smart decisions. And recently, I didn’t. You know, I’m not perfect. I’m not going to sit up here and say that I am or claim to be in any way shape or form. And I made a bad error in judgment and I put myself in an environment where only bad things can happen and they did. And in doing that I know that I’m going to hurt the people closest to me, who I’ve talked to and apologized to, that would be my wife and my kids. And I just..,you know…It’s a shitty moment. It’s a shitty moment when you know you’re wrong and there’s no excuses for your wrong behavior. At the end of the day man, I just simply gotta do better. But I’m also not going to allow a person to have financial gain off of my mistakes and in this particular situation that was what was attempted. I said I’d rather fess up to my mistakes.”
