Learning of a partner's infidelity is always going to hurt, but the wife of one comedian and movie star had to find out in an especially painful way. Kevin Hart's wife Eniko Hart learned that he had cheated on her through Instagram, when she was seven months pregnant with their child. Kevin's cheating scandal became public in September 2017, and the Ride Along star soon admitted that the rumors were true. In the time since, Kevin and Eniko have both spoken out about the troubles in their marriage, including why they decided to stay together after his unfaithfulness was revealed. Read on to find out more.
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Kevin was the target of an alleged extortion plot.
DFree / ShutterstockEniko and Kevin got married in August 2016. A little over a year later, in September 2017, it was reported that Kevin and a woman named Montia Sabbag were involved in an alleged extortion plot and had been secretly filmed together in a hotel room. "Montia is a crime victim. Someone apparently snuck cameras into Kevin Hart’s private hotel suite in Las Vegas and recorded bedroom images of the two of them," Sabbag's lawyer said at the time, as reported by People.
A couple of months before this, Kevin was accused of cheating on Eniko after photos of him with other women outside of a Miami hotel at 5 a.m were published. "It's absolutely not true," Hart told Entertainment Tonight in July 2017. "It's Miami, the clubs close at 6 a.m., so I was actually going home early."
He apologized on social media.
Warning: Explicit language in video above.
Kevin spoke out about being filmed with Sabbag in an Instagram video posted on Sept. 16, 2017.
"I made a bad error in judgement and put myself in an environment where only bad things can happen and they did," he said. "It’s a [expletive] moment when you know you’re wrong and there’s no excuses for your wrong behavior." The actor added, "But I’m also not going to allow a person to have financial gain off of my mistakes … I’d rather fess up to my mistakes."
It was alleged that the person attempting extortion was a friend of Kevin's, Jonathan Todd Jackson. As reported by NBC Los Angeles, Jackson's lawyer said, "There was never any demand made for any money. There was never any extortion attempt," and that a statement circulating on social media about a demand for money was wrongly attributed to him. The case was dismissed in 2021.
Someone DMed Eniko the video.
Featureflash Photo Agency / ShutterstockIn the 2019 docuseries Kevin Hart: Don’t [Expletive] This Up, Eniko shared that she was told about her husband cheating on her via social media.
"How I found out was a DM. I don’t know who it was. They sent me an edited video of Kevin and, you know, another woman," Eniko said, according to Essence. "I was pregnant at that time, I was about seven or eight months pregnant. I was having breakfast, I opened my phone and immediately I just lost it. I called him, I’m crying, I’m like pissed. Right then and there, I kept saying, ‘How the [expletive] did you let that happen?’”
She said she told Kevin that he had humiliated her. "It was an ongoing fight all the time. Every single day. I kept questioning him, like, 'If this is what you’re gonna do, I don’t want to be a part of that,'" she recalled.
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Kevin said the conversations with Eniko were "crushing."
DFree / ShutterstockAlso in the docuseries, Kevin reflected on what the aftermath of his cheating was like.
"That conversation, there is no easy way to have that conversation," he said. "The worst part was just knowing how you made somebody feel. There’s a major effect it could have on the people that you are closest to, who you love the most. When I got to see that firsthand with Eniko when I got to see the effect my reckless behavior had … It was crushing, that tore me up. That really tore me up."
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Eniko said she stayed with Kevin for their child.
Ovidiu Hrubaru / ShutterstockEniko and Kevin welcomed their first child, Kenzo Hart, in November 2017. Eniko explained that she stayed with Kevin after the scandal because of their son.
"I’m happy that it kind of happened," she said in the documentary. "I get sensitive every time I talk about it. He’s [expletive] up, this was a bad one, this was major. Nine years and I think looking forward, it’ll be better." (Kevin and Eniko started dating in 2009.)
She added that Kevin is "a better man now because of it." Eniko continued, I believe in second chances. I’m all about forgiveness, and you only get two times. Three strikes you’re out, you’re out of here. So, as long as he behaves, we’re good."
In 2020, Kevin spoke about Eniko's decision while appearing on the podcast The School of Greatness (via People). "She came to an amazing conclusion of, 'I like the fact that we have a family, that we have a household, and I like the fact that we now got a job to do to get better,'" Hart said. He explained that Eniko told him, "That's what you owe me. You owe me the get-better."
"And she held me accountable," he added.
Eniko and Kevin welcomed their second child, daughter Kaori Hart, in September 2020. Kevin also has two teenage children, Heaven and Hendrix, with his first wife, Torrei Hart.
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