Mary Shackleford Harvey sat down with a BlackAmericaWeb representative yesterday to discuss her reasons for coming forward after 6 years. In the interview she discusses how she feels that Steve has beguiled the public and the thousands of women that have purchased his books. She stated that she had not planned to come forward, until she felt disrespected by Steve's December 2010 Essence Magazine interview, where he mentioned his relationship with her. Check out excerpts from the interview below.
BlackAmericaWeb.com: After being divorced from Steve Harvey for six years, what made you decide to speak out now?
MARY SHACKLEFORD HARVEY: In time to get back on my feet mentally and emotionally from this whole situation, I have been working on myself, going to therapy and working out and eating healthly. In that process, I was hoping that Steve would face me, and I would have rather that he had apologized and worked with me to help me have a good relationship with Wynton. I was hoping that we could reconcile about our property and our wealth, things that never got dealt with. He just kind of left that door open and went and re-started his life with someone else and left me holding the emotional bag of it and the mental bag of it and the financial bag of it.
You have talked about how you were unfairly treated in the divorce. Did you have a pre-nuptial agreement at all?
There was nothing to pre-nup. He didn’t have anything. I didn’t have anything. Steve and I married in 1996, but had lived together five and a half years previous to 1996.
So, when you married, he was just starting the career he has now.
Yes, he was getting $25 to $400 a week, depending on the venue.
Is it true that you and Steve used the same divorce attorney?
He was our family attorney. I filed in the state of Texas, and Steve and I decided to use our family attorney, as the whole thing was not to create what’s actually happening right now. I decided I no longer wanted to be his wife. The whole thing was making me sick, physically. I burned my thyroid out and I was literally getting sick. My thing was not to destroy Steve publicly or financially. So I agreed, let’s go to court and work this out with our lawyer. But that was not what
So, you used the lawyer to work out certain terms of the divorce, and you’re saying that although certain things were agreed upon, they never happened?
The attorney said that in 30 days, everything would be divided equally. Thirty days after that, nothing happened. I started to call the family attorney; he wouldn’t take my calls. The accountants, the bankers - everybody acted like they didn’t know who I was. I actually gave Steve two years to set this right with me, and he didn’t. I didn’t get an outside attorney until January of 2007. That’s how all of this got on MediaTakeout and all of that.
Was there a new settlement that came into play once that new attorney was hired? I would think that Steve does have assets.
Absolutely. He had closed out our joint accounts. The judge said to not make any moves, either one of you. Don’t buy anything; don’t sell anything until this gets resolved. Steve just totally ignored that and started closing bank accounts and liquidating stuff and opening stuff up in his name. He and the attorney started new business entities in both of their names. Our accountants in Chicago were just in cahoots with this whole situation. I was totally left in the dark about it. By the time I brought this new lawyer in, so many things had gotten moved and shifted around.
Steve is a public figure, so he’s someone who can be found. How did it turn out that you received nothing in the divorce?
I didn’t get anything.
No money, no property, nothing?
I don’t own anything. I know this is hard to believe. This is the 21st century. This is America, USA. But that is exactly what happened. Steve came into that courtroom with his entourage and his lawyers and all these people that packed out the courtroom, and I’m sitting on the other side with my lawyer that I could afford. When the situation started to unravel, the judge didn’t want anything to do with it. He just wanted it out of his court. A lot of things that he had requested Steve to do got sidetracked. I wasn’t important enough for that whole thing to get enforced.Steve decided that he was going to pay me $40,000 a month until everything got rectified. He paid me $40,000 for 10 months. By the time he dragged it all out, I had three Texas attorneys. Six, seven months later, I’m out of money and Steve has totally exhausted me – appeal this and appeal that and all three of these lawyers get intimidated by him; they get glassy eyed because he’s the star and the fire they had at the beginning is not even there anymore. I don’t own anything. I have a one-bedroom in L.A. The place Steve calls the ranch where the takes the kids and does his mentoring – I sold my share of that to Steve for $1.5 million and that’s what I’ve been living off of. That’s all I could do. I couldn’t win - no way, no how.
By bringing this information to light, how do hope to see this resolved?
Because Steve insists in bringing me up publicly and making me the heavy in the breakup of our marriage, what I want the public to be is more informed about this man that they are calling the relationship expert and the love guru. People need to understand who it is that they’re dealing with. In using the media to promote his book, once again, that’s a show of power. I want this to be public because I didn’t want Steve to think that I was weak, and I was powerless, and I was voiceless so that he could keep doing me the way he wanted to do me. His disrespecting me, Marjorie disrespecting me, not allowing me to establish a relationship with my son, that had to stop.
Steve was on the January 2010 cover of Essence, and you’ve said that he referenced you in the article. What did he say that upset you so much, and did he refer to you specifically?
My name was in that article. The article said in Steve’s words that ‘I’m finally happy and that I haven’t been this happy since 2005 and I was in the company of the wrong person.' My name mentioned in any way was offensive to me; why mention me at all? I would think that he and Marjorie have plenty to talk about, as opposed to bringing me into an article that has nothing to do with me.Does Steve have full custody of your son?
We both agreed that Wynton would stay with him during the school term. Every other weekend and the summer I was supposed to have access to him, and we were rotating holidays. Steve will send Wynton to me once every six months like he’s doing me a favor.
Why did you agree to have Wynton live with Steve?
I didn’t have a choice, and after Steve had taken everything from me, Steve’s whole case to the judge was that she doesn’t have a home to put Wynton into; she doesn’t have a job, and she doesn’t have a support system. He was right about all those things because he had taken all those things from me. Wynton was very much hurt by this whole situation. Between 2005 and 2007, Steve would barely talk to Wynton. Steve told me that I if I didn’t give him custody, he was going to make it very hard for me and Wynton, so that’s why he ended up with custody.
Do you regret that decision?
No. When I made that arrangement with Steve, I was hoping that he would be a kinder father than he ever was a husband to me. Wynton was going through enough, and he didn’t need me verbally abusing his father to him. Once again, that was me trying to do the best that I could do for Wynton, but Steve took advantage of that.
What kind of dialogue do you have with Wynton now? Even if you don’t see him as much, I’m sure as his mother, you want to reassure him that you love him.
I send Wynton text messages, and most of the time, Wynton doesn’t have his phone. Steve has a habit of taking his phone, and I’ve never had a number to the house. I just text Wynton and hope he texts me back or hope he got the message or hope they didn’t get his phone and erase the message. It’s hard to look at him on TV smiling and know behind closed doors that this is happening. I probably have two conversations with Wynton in a 30-day stretch. My relationship with my son, it’s a joke.
You’ve alleged that Marjorie, Steve’s current wife, had a relationship with Steve during your marriage. At this point, what do you have to say about Marjorie?
Marjorie interfered with my family. She had no thoughts about how it was going to impact Wynton and how it was going to change him. She didn’t act like a lady. She came into this totally wrong to disrupt my family, and that’s what she did. So for her and Steve to present this perfect picture like they’re the reflection of our culture, and there’s a reward for it - disrespect your wife, marry your mistress, and there’s a reward from God for it - I was not going to let that happen, not anymore.A lot of time, when there is a wife, a mistress and husband, the mistress takes a great deal of blame for that situation, but you’ve already said that Steve wasn’t good to you. So, if Steve was not a nice guy, is this a reward or is his new wife getting what she deserves?
That statement was not to say that this has been a reward. She wanted to be Mrs. Harvey. Now she’s getting the good and the bad of it. So she’s actually getting what she absolutely deserves. They both are getting what they absolutely deserve. They had no qualms or conscience about what they were doing. He wanted what he wanted, which was her, and she wanted what she wanted, which was the lifestyle. The two of them were just thinking of themselves.
How do you feel about Steve now? You were married to him. You had a child together. How do you feel about him today?
Part of me not speaking out until now was because of my affection for Steve, still. I don’t hate him, but I definitely don’t like what he did. Steve is going to have to step up to the plate and face what he’s done. I want him to be man enough to face what he’s done. He’s going to have to apologize, and I don’t mean over the phone. He publicly brought our divorce into this, and he’s publicly going to have to make it right. I was made the public heavy, but up until now, I didn’t open my mouth. I don’t want Steve to lose his shirt; I don’t want Steve to lose how he earns a living. But what Steve is going to have to do is face what he’s done to me. He’s going to have to face his deceit to the women that bought that book under the premise that he’s this all-around guy, and he’s the relationship expert for everybody.
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