Tiffany Haddish on How She Learned to Love Herself (EXCL)
In an exclusive interview with In Touch, Tiffany Haddish opened up about overcoming obstacles and how she learned to love herself after years of self-hate.
Tiffany Haddish was 25 when she began doing positive affirmations in the mirror. âThe first time I did it, I cried really hard, because I [didnât] love or approve of myself,â the 45-year-old has said.
The L.A. native has been open about her early struggles. She spent much of her childhood in foster care, and was homeless before getting her start in comedy. âAs I took on this practice and did it on a regular basis, my life started to slowly change ⌠I really started to recognize my actual beauty and to slowly become confident.â
Now, self-love has become second nature for the Girls Trip star, who released her book I Curse You With Joy in May 2024 and a single, âWoman Up,â with Grammy-winning collaborator Diane Warren, in June 2024. âYou become your own best friend,â she exclusively tells In Touchâs Lindsay Hoffman. Here, Tiffany talks about understanding her worth, her surprising dream job and the inspiration for her song.
Youâve been vocal about all the obstacles youâve overcome. How have those challenges shaped who you are today?TH: Those struggles made me hard to deter, harder to stop. People try to purposely make you feel like you ainât sât, but Iâve already been in the âainât sâtâ category. I came from [that]. You canât make me feel like I ainât sât anymore.
How come?TH: I know me; I have a relationship with me, and itâs a very strong one because Iâve been living with me for 45 years. I was kind of messed up to me earlier in the relationship, but weâre working on it. I think every woman should marry themselves before they marry [a man]. How can I expect him to do something that I wouldnât do for myself?
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How else do you protect your peace?TH: I try to eliminate people that talk negatively. People that send me negative videos. Theyâre not worth your time. I already know what the negative is.
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You wrote about your journey in I Curse You With Joy. How was that process?TH: I learned so much about myself. Looking at my old journals ⌠Iâve rewritten my story so many times in my head that Iâve been lying to myself and making it worse than what it is. And then sometimes I lie to myself and make it really awesome. But [I was] so mean to me. Canât nobody be meaner to me than me.
Whatâs in the book that people donât know about you?TH: Thereâs a chapter called âSex Edâ thatâs quite graphic. I always wanted to be a sex education teacher. Iâm talking about things where I made mistakes and fell short. And things I wasnât informed about, so maybe others donât make the same mistakes I made.
How was it working with Diane Warren?TH: A dream come true. I used to dance to all her songs â I still do.
What inspired âWoman Upâ?TH: I was telling Diane how I have to talk to myself to get out of bed and brush my teeth and go do my show or whatever. When I donât show up to work â especially when Iâm No. 1 on the call sheet â thatâs 200 people who arenât working that day. Sometimes you donât want to because of [certain] things, but you have to move past it and get things done.