What’s the key to a harmonious blended family? If you ask Steve Harvey, well, he might not have an answer for you. The star recently sat down for a chat with football legend and sports commentator Shannon Sharpe on his podcast Club Shay Shay. During the conversation, when Sharpe asked Harvey how he and Marjorie Harvey were able to blend their children from previous relationships, he admitted, “That sh-t hard.” He got real, admitting that not everyone hit it off in the way he would have loved to see. In fact, all the girls at one time, including Lori and Morgan (Marjorie’s daughters) and his biological daughters, twins Brandi and Karli, weren’t here for the blending.
“They went bowling one night in Memphis when me and Marjorie first got together. We brought all the kids together, all seven. All the girls went bowling, came back and decided they didn’t want us to get married and said they don’t think it’s the right thing to do. And they need more time to get to know us,” he recalled. “I’m sitting up here looking at some people who ain’t got sh-t. Y’all ain’t got a relationship, a good a– job, a career. I’m paying for colleges and sh-t. How am I listening to y’all making some damn decisions? Y’all ain’t got one boyfriend that’s worked thus far. So I don’t know how the hell you gon’ tell me how to live.”
Harvey remarked that his sons Broderick and Wynton, and Marjorie’s son Jason, were fine with his desire to wed her.
“They cool with everything,” he said. “The four girls? Just total mayhem. Totally against it.”
Instead of attempting to try and win everyone over, The Kings of Comedy star stood firm on his plans.
“I love this girl,” he said he told them, adding that she was “the best thing for me. We gon’ work. We’re gonna create an atmosphere of love and everyone’s invited into it. Anybody that wanna come into it can come into it.”
Those who lived in the house with Steve and Marjorie, including all three boys and Lori, built bonds (Lori and Wynton are the closest to this day) while the eldest girls lived on their own and started their own families. In the present day, he says that they do have great family vacations and holiday celebrations. Nevertheless, just because they’re a blended family doesn’t mean they’re 100 percent smooth — but that’s ok.
“It was hard man. They were trying to evolve and get to know each other and some of the relationships are really good and some of them, they’re cordial,” Steve shared. “That’s just the way it is.”
Steve has been married three times. His first marriage to Marcia Harvey brought him his twin daughters and son Broderick, while he had son Wynton in his second marriage to Mary Shackelford. He’s also a grandfather, with Jason, Morgan and Karli all starting their own broods.
We respect his honesty about the difficulties of blending families. It doesn’t have to always be the cushiest situation to be a peaceful one that works — especially if it works for the people bringing the families together.