Just ahead of the upcoming BET+ Martin: The Reunion special, Tisha Campbell is opening up about how she and Martin co-star Martin Lawrence were able to reconnect in the years after she filed a sexual harassment lawsuit in 1997.
Speaking with with Gayle King for CBS This Morning on Monday, Campbell shared how the two “worked really hard to forgive and reconnect,” and that the excitement she felt about the forthcoming reunion stems from those efforts and more.
“We worked really hard to reconnect, to forgive and it’s really—this reunion is about a celebration of everything that we did, everything we accomplished, and our growth as human beings. And so we concentrated mostly on that,” she explained.
When reflecting on the legacy of the show and why fans still remain after all these years, Campbell said:
“I think people really resonated with the fact that we were two young people in love. Two young Black couples, ‘cause all we really had was Claire and Cliff. And so to see that, to see two young people trying to figure it out with their friends—I think that’s what really made people love the show and really embrace it.”
She later expressed how she was “the happiest” she’s ever been in her life and credited it to the time spent in isolation because of COVID.
“It was a combination of the newfound freedom in my life and COVID isolation,” she explained. “I really had to sit with myself and my children. It was that whole time where I got to rediscover who I was because I been paying bills since I was five-years-old and—I learned that I am super intelligent. And resilient. And that I was a really good role model for my kids. And that I loved being a mother, I took being married very seriously, I took being a mother very seriously. And at this point, it’s really about: who am I?”
She concluded, “And discovering who I am and everything that you go through it’s like a beautiful devastation. You’re going to learn something really interesting about yourself. Sometimes things come in a really interesting, complicated, ugly gift. It’s wrapped in a very strange package. And I just learned so much about myself and really am the happiest I’ve ever been in my life. I really do like myself.”
Martin: The Reunion airs Thursday, June 16 only on BET+.