Tiffany Haddish Opens Up About Childhood Trauma: 'I Thought I Would Die Before I Was 21'

Tiffany Haddish recalls a terrifying time in her life.

In an exclusive sneak peek of this week’s episode SHE MD podcaster, actress, comedian and author I curse you with joy she said she “never” thought she would be a famous entertainer, in large part due to certain traumatic childhood experiences.

“I didn’t even think I’d make it to 21,” said Haddish, 44. “I thought I was going to die before I turned 21, because people were shooting around me.”

“I was at so many funerals. So many of my friends were killed. There was so much devastation around me that I just… I didn’t think I was going to make it,” she added.

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Tiffany Haddish in West Hollywood, California on October 18, 2023.

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But, as it is Haunted palace the actress explained on the podcast, that feeling hasn’t diminished her desire to make a positive difference in her chosen profession.

“Even as I got older and felt like my world was taken and torn apart and ripped and shredded and beaten up physically, emotionally, mentally, all those things, I still thought, ‘I just want to bring joy,'” Haddish said.

As a child, “Everything I saw on Search with an asteriskI tried,” she recalled. “I wanted to be on Search with an asterisk so bad. I remember I had my little church shoes, those little Mary Janes with the hard bottom. I would go to the kitchen, tap dance.”

Haddish added that she would even “invite the kids on the block next door to come over” and watch her perform.

“I would make up these songs and sing and dance to them,” she said. “Did I imagine I would be an entertainer? Yes. Did I imagine it would be to this extent? No.”

Tiffany Haddish in Los Angeles on June 28, 2023.

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In a recent conversation with PEOPLE about her new book I curse you with joyHaddish said she “wanted this book to be about something,” explaining, “I felt like I needed to live a little more of my life and better understand where I am now.”

After her bestselling debut in 2017 The last black unicornHaddish’s new book picks up where she left off Girls trip star last remaining readers. IN I curse you with joy, delves into the ups and downs of her career in the entertainment industry, as well as her personal life, including her mother’s struggle with mental illness, which forced Haddish to become her family’s caregiver before ending up in the foster care system.

The star also admitted to PEOPLE that the book comes after a slew of controversies, including two DUI-related arrests, as well as difficult times in her personal life, like the loss of her grandmother and the end of her relationship with rapper-actor The Usual.

Haddish appears in this week’s episode SHE MD podcast with Dr. Thaïs Aliabadi and Mary Alice Haney, premiering in full on Tuesday, May 14.

I curse you with joy it is now available wherever books are sold.

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Source: HIS Education