In an interview with Essence Magazine Duane Martin and wife Tisha Campbell dispelled all rumors that have been circulating the internet and radio claiming that the couple is getting a divorce and that Duane Martin was coming out of the closet….
Essence.com: For the past month, the blogosphere has been filled with rumors about the future of your marriage. How are you holding up?
D.M.: Mark Twain said it best: “A lie can travel halfway round the world while the truth is putting on its shoes.” So I’m not going to defend myself against a gay rumor when I’m trying to defend my son against autism. We would look really stupid trying to take our focus off autism, which affects all of us, to fight a gay rumor. The reason we are talking today is because what we will defend is our 17-year relationship. Nobody is touching that. So whoever wants to rumble, let’s rumble.
T.M.: (Laughs) My baby’s smart! My baby daddy’s smart. My baby daddy reads.
Essence.com: (Laughs) How long have you been married?
T.M.: Only 11 years, but we’ve been together for 17.
D.M.: Yep and I’m not going anywhere.
Essence.com: So for the record, are you getting a divorce?
T.M.: Hell no!
D.M.: Listen, let me tell you something. I will chew her ass up and swallow it before I let somebody else have her.
T.M.: (laughs) Jeffrey Dahmer-style!
Essence.com: Some in the industry went so far as to speculate that you put out the rumors yourselves to gain publicity.
T.M.: Eww, who wants that kind of publicity?
D.M.: That’s foul. Please, I almost lost a deal because of all this gossip. Tisha and I own about six commercial buildings in Studio City, California, and were looking to acquire two other buildings. The realtor went online and read that we were getting divorced and called our clients and said, “Y’all need to get out of this deal because these two are divorcing, and you don’t want to get caught up in the separation of funds and all that kind of mess.” So they called me trying to get out of the deal.
Essence.com: So how did the rumors get started?
T.M.: Duane and I usually attend Charlie Mack’s Party 4 Peace Celebrity Weekend in Philadelphia. This year he couldn’t make it because he had to be in Turks and Caicos scouting for locations for the hotel we’re building there. So I went to represent with Tichina (Arnold). After I left Philly, I heard that a radio disc jockey announced we’d had an amicable split. Then Duane got a call from Cedric the Entertainer saying, “I just want y’all to know, Dawg, y’all broke up.” (Laugh) So it progressed from he and I having an amicable split to Duane verbally abuses me to Duane physically abuses me to Duane has a girlfriend on the side to Duane has a boyfriend on the side to I also live an alternative lifestyle.
Essence.com: Bloggers even wrote that Duane and longtime friend Will Smith are an item?
T.M.: (Laughs) Our theory is that it’s really a slave mentality. Whenever the Black community has leaders, potential leaders or a family unit, we emasculate them. You don’t ever see them do that to Ben Affleck or Matt Damon. They can be friends, and be powerful individually or collectively and do amazing things.
D.M.: It’s a Brat Pack when White people do it.
Essence.com: So how is it different when it comes to Black men?
T.M.: When two brothers are successful or have influential and powerful friends, we have to emasculate them. On the real, we even did it to Oprah and Gayle. We have to get over that because at the end of the day who really cares? We have Katrina, autism and children killing one another in my hometown of Newark. I don’t know what the obsession is with celebrities, but maybe it helps people feel better about their own situation. We just know that it’s something that comes along with being in front of the camera.
Essence.com: Did you hear the rumor that Will Smith bought you a sports car?
D.M.: I’m not even into sports cars. I’m a sedan kind of guy, so I never heard that one, but I did hear the one in 2000 that Will Smith bought me a Bentley for my birthday. I was so disgusted with the rumors that I sold it. What happened is, the Bentley, which I paid for myself, was delivered during my birthday party, and when it arrived, Will, another friend and I jumped in there and turned the music up. Those attending just assumed he’d bought me the car.
T.M.: Right. They couldn’t understand how a “struggling actor” could afford such a whip. I thought the same thing when we came to see the house we now live in. I thought he was trying to impress me, but like most people I had no idea about all the other outside businesses he has, such as real estate property and a sports agency.
Essence.com: Of course, you’ve heard that you and LisaRaye’s husband, Michael Misick, allegedly are head over heels for each other.
D.M.: (Laughs) Yeah, I heard. I’m thinking, What is LisaRaye saying? Is she going for this? I knew Michael for two years before we got in the business together. He and LisaRaye have been married for more than a year. He’s trying to be the Gucci of the Caribbean islands. You’ll never see a McDonald’s or Burger King (in Turks and Caicos), only high-end restaurants and hotels. He has the luxury of not making the mistakes that some of the other countries made, selling out to tourism and lower-level tourism. So here’s an opportunity for all of us to go down there and have a piece of paradise. People like to be around like-minded people. That’s all it is at the end of the day. Michael, Will, and Cedric the Entertainer are going to build a hotel in Studio City, California. We’re also doing Turks and Caicos.
T.M.: When it comes to our friends, we try to keep fam together. We’re all in business together and trying to be entrepreneurs together and uplift one another. I hang out with people who are amazing parents and really value a rich living. I’m not talking about monetarily. I’m talking spiritually and mentally, and we help make sure that each one is on their game for their spouses.
Essence.com: And Tisha, you and your longtime friend Tichina Arnold are supposedly a hot couple?
T.M.: (Laughs) Yeah, I’ve heard that one before. It’s hilarious.
D.M.: (Laughs) Very…
Essence.com: What were some of the reactions you received from your friends?
T.M.: (Laughs) The Wayanses told Duane that he matches too much and he should stop matching his clothes so much and maybe people wouldn’t think he was gay.
D.M.: I said to Shawn, Damian and Craig Wayans, “Whassup, y’all didn’t call me. Yo that means y’all believe that s—! I didn’t get no jokes on my machine or nothing.” Craig said, “Yo man, we were scared.”
T.M.: (Laughs) They said Marlon (Wayans) said, “Man, we were in Above the Rim together; I need to call him.”
D.M.: (Laughs) Marlon said, “Man, I’m mad at you! We all family. We love you, but the problem is, man, if you been gay all this time, I’m mad because you never hit on me. I’m handsome.”
Essence.com: Let me dig in the crates for an old rumor. Have you seen Martin since you left the show?
.M.: We’ve seen each other and been in the same places. They were thinking about doing a movie, but at that time I was trying to do a series and I didn’t want it to coincide with that. It’s been ten years, so it’s like water under the bridge. We’re so much older it’s like, Who cares? I don’t talk badly about anybody, and the only thing I will ever say about Martin is that he gave me an opportunity and taught me a lot about comedy.
D.M.: I judge people on their recovery—if anybody did anything that they’re not proud of and they are able to recover from it. That’s how you judge a person. I don’t really think about it and I don’t have any beef with him. I saw him at a celebrity basketball game and he came over and said, “I just want to say that it’s all love.”
For rest of the interview go to http://www.essence.com/essence/themix/entertainment/0,16109,1657628-2,00.html
