Janet Hubert is getting a few things off her mind.
As fans are gearing up for The Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air reunion special, more behind the scenes stories are being told.
As reported on The Jasmine Brand, Janet, who played “Aunt Viv,” spoke about what she was going through around the time she was exiting the show. Janet was dealing with a lot on her plate, she was pregnant and she was in an abusive relationship. Janet said,
“Something I would like to clarify is during that third season when I got pregnant, there was a lot of things going on in my life and in Will [Smith]’s life as well. There was some friction because I was pregnant. Home life was not good at all. I was no longer laughing, smiling, joking because there were things that were going on that nobody knew about. The cast had no idea what was going on.”
Janet went on to tell Will,
“What you didn’t realize either was I was going through a lot at home. You didn’t know. Very abusive marriage.”
After Janet was offered a bad deal on the show, that’s when she decided to part ways. She explained,
“They said, ‘You’ve got two months and two weeks of work and you cannot work anywhere else.’ So that meant my salary was cut. I had a new baby and a husband who was out of work. So I said no. I did not accept their offer. I was never fired. So the misconception was always put out there. I was trapped. What could I do? So they said, ‘Okay, then we’re going to recast your role.’ And I said, ‘What can I say?’ I was hurt deeply, deeply.”
Janet said things got worse for her when she left the show. She was alone and had no one.
“When I left the show, I had this new baby and no one. Family disowned me. Hollywood disowned me. My family said, ‘You’ve ruined our name.’ And, I wasn’t unprofessional on the set. I just stopped talking to everybody because I didn’t know who to trust because I’d been banished. They said it was you who banished me because you were Will. You were a kid. It was hard.”
Over the summer, Joseph Marcell, who played the role of Geoffrey on the show, spoke on a podcast about the tension during the time of Janet’s exit.
The reunion special is set to air on HBO Max TONIGHT! (Originally it was Nov. 19, but Will gave fans a special treat.) Will said,
“Because I know y’all have waited long enough, I told @hbomaxto give the people what they want and drop the #FreshPrinceReunion early! See you tonite at 5pm PT/8pm ET!!”