Tiffany Haddish Is Now One Of Time Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People
Tiffany Haddish is, by far, the patron saint of the Glow Up. After teaching us the art of fruit-flavored fellatio in last year’s blockbuster hit Girl’s Trip and a critically acclaimed hosting gig on Saturday Night Live (wearing her trademark white Alexander McQueen dress) she is the definition of ‘Living My Best Life’. It hasn’t always been easy, but it’s been worth it. And now after all her years of struggle she’s snagged a spot on Time’s 100 Most Influential People’s list, along with Cardi B, Nicole Kidman, Christian Siriano, Lena Waithe, JLo, Prince Harry, Meghan Markle, Rihanna, and Janet Mock.
Tiffany also was recently interviewed by W Magazine to discuss how she rose through the ranks to be among Hollywood’s elite after facing a multitude of challenges. She spoke of her childhood, which was marred by poverty, an absentee father and a car collision that left her mother severely brain damaged. The accident changed Tiffany’s life completely.
Haddish and her four younger half-siblings were in and out of foster care and were eventually raised by their grandmother, who asked Haddish to leave once she turned 18 and was no longer eligible for foster care payments. Later on, Haddish had a terrible marriage but, even after she and her husband split up, Haddish couldn’t quite shake him off and wound up marrying him again. After they finally divorced for good, she was briefly homeless and lived out of her car, parking it in Beverly Hills “because,” she said, “I’ll be homeless with class.”
When she was 15, amidst scratching and surviving at home like the Evans family from Good Times, a social worker nudged her to participate in the Laugh Factory Comedy Camp, where she met comic legend Richard Pryor. He gave her a piece of advice that we all should live by; “You need to have fun.”
That philosophy seems to be working out for, and whether she’s hosting SNL in the McQueen dress, or presenting during the Oscars in the McQueen dress, or…wait. Hole up. Tiff. You got money now. What’s up with you wearing the same shit all the time??
“Here’s the story of that dress: I hired a stylist for Girls Trip, and she said, ‘Girl, if you’re trying to make it to the next level in your career, you’re going to have to spend a little money.’ I said, ‘I’m down to look my best. Whatever it takes.’ ” The stylist brought several options, and the only one that fit her body was the McQueen. It was perfect. “I should’ve known—wasn’t no price tag on that dress. So I wear it for Girls Trip, and then they give me the receipt. When I saw the receipt, I cried. The dress was $4,122! So I’m wearing it multiple fucking times. I don’t care what nobody say—that’s a down payment on a car, that’s a medical bill. So, even though everyone says I shouldn’t wear the dress in public again, I’m wearing it.”
And this, ladies and gentlemen, is why I love me some Tiffany Haddish. But $4,122 for that simple-ass white dress?! This is why you always look at the price tag no matter what. And it’s not like Tiffany could return the dress and say that she never wore it. That wouldn’t fly, because there was picture proof….unless she told the Alexander McQueen people that although the dress looked a lot like theirs, the one she wore was actually a $19.99 knock-off she bought on eBay. Yeah, I would’ve tried that.
Pic: Time