Mo'Nique Calls Out Whoopi Goldberg in Open Letter Over 2018 'The View' Disagreement

Mo’Nique has written an open letter to Whoopi Goldberg related to a disagreement they had on The View in 2018.

In her letter, posted to her Instagram on Monday (March 9), Mo’Nique asks Whoopi if her “feelings changed since that time,” now that the “tone of comments” is different than it was eight years ago.

For context, during a visit to The View in February 2018, Mo’Nique spoke about her boycott against Netflix because she was only being offered $500,000 for her comedy special despite many of her peers earning millions for theirs. She later sued them in 2019 and Netflix settled it with her in 2022.

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During the segment on the daytime talk show, Joy Behar asked Mo’Nique if the financial discrepancy may have been caused by her getting labeled “difficult” by Hollywood, something that stemmed back to her 2009 film Precious and her decision not to promote it overseas.

“On that film I received $50,000 and that was not my argument or my fight because that’s what I signed up for,” Mo’Nique explained at the time. “They wanted me to come work for free to go over to Cannes and promote this film internationally. I said to them, ‘Guys my deal is with Lee Daniels, and I’ve done my job’ and they all agreed.”

She detailed a specific pay arrangement with director Lee Daniels in which she was obligated to promote the film domestically only, and anything international would have been her working without pay.

To that, Whoopi responded, “I’m going to stop you because contractually, when you make a movie, regardless of who you sign the deal with, your job is to go and promote said movie. When they wanted you to come, and we’ve had this conversation, I said, ‘If you had called me, I could have schooled you on what was expected.’”

Now, in her letter, Mo’Nique says she learned there was an attempt to sue Whoopi in 1993 for allegedly backing out of a verbal agreement to star in the film Theodore Rex.

“You can imagine how confused I was when I discovered this, especially since when I explained that my only contractual obligation was to Lee Daniels, it didn’t sway your opinion enough to stop you from saying you could have ‘schooled’ me on doing what they expected from me,” Mo’Nique wrote in her open letter.

She went on to say, “Now I don’t know if your opinion of my actions was influenced by your former Executive Producer, Candi Carter’s relationship with Oprah, or by your professional ties with Tyler Perry. But what is interesting is hearing you now speak about the importance of standing up for what’s right. My question is: is your stance truly about standing up against wrongs, or is it about standing with the ‘right people’?”

Read Mo’Nique’s letter in full below.

Hello Sister Whoopi,

I’m encouraged to send you this open letter after recently seeing the video of our last conversation on your show. The tone of the comments today seems different from the energy eight years ago, with many people now agreeing with my sentiments about not working for people or entities I don’t owe anything to. I wonder, have your feelings changed since that time?

I was also intrigued to learn that in 1993 there was an attempt to sue you regarding Theodore Rex, because it was alleged that you had made a verbal commitment to the film. Your defense was that you never actually committed. You can imagine how confused I was when I discovered this, especially since when I explained that my only contractual obligation was to Lee Daniels, it didn’t sway your opinion enough to stop you from saying you could have “schooled” me on doing what they expected from me.

Even though Tyler Perry privately admitted on audio that he was wrong saying I was difficult to work with, to this day he has not publicly corrected it. The reason I said we must look out for the little girl coming behind us is because of situations like Epstein Island and other powerful people avoiding accountability. People like Tyler Perry refused to take responsibility, while I had to take responsibility for refusing to sign up for an act of slavery against my will. The worst part is that another woman chastised me on a platform meant to empower women.

Now I don’t know if your opinion of my actions was influenced by your former Executive Producer, Candi Carter’s relationship with Oprah, or by your professional ties with Tyler Perry. But what is interesting is hearing you now speak about the importance of standing up for what’s right. My question is: is your stance truly about standing up against wrong, or is it about standing with the “right people”?

I’ll await your reply about whether you still feel you schooled me correctly. But I caution you: if you admit you were wrong, you know you’d be going against all the “right people.” So, are you willing to do what’s right for the little girls coming behind us, or is your position still “F” the little girl coming behind us? I look forward to finding out.

Because I was the little girl coming behind you.

Love You To Life,
Mo’Nique