Kevin Hart‘s legal problems are getting personal. The woman at the center of Hart’s 2017 affair is now suing the movie star. Millions of dollars are on the line for the embattled star.
In 2017, Hart shocked the world by posting a video to his Instagram page admitting to cheating on his then-pregnant wife, Eniko Parrish. In the video, the Jumanji star explained that his affair was being used against him as blackmail and he was working with the FBI to resolve the case. The actor and the woman he cheated with, Montia Sabbag, were secretly filmed in a Vegas hotel room as they engaged in intimate activities.
Sabbag first came forward in a September 2017 press conference to clear her name and assure the public that she had no part in the extortion attempt. Now Sabbag, who initially considered Kevin Hart a fellow victim, is suing Hart. Included in the lawsuit are the hotel and Jonathan Todd Jackson. The latter was a former friend of Hart’s who was charged with attempted extortion. She claims Hart was fully aware their bedroom activities were being recorded and was working with Jackson.
According to her, Hart allowed Jackson to set up a video camera in the hotel room. Hart planned the whole thing to promote his new comedy tour, Irresponsible, which started only days before the news of the affair hit. It was all for the publicity, Sabbag insists. The encounter, the confession, all of it.
This isn’t the only lawsuit this affair has brought about. Hart was recently sued by his ex-business partner, Stand Up Digital. Hart had been working with the company to produce a mobile app where players could play interactive games with characters based on Hart’s family. The game was scrapped after Hart came clean about his Las Vegas rendezvous.
By then, the company had already sunk $1.25 million into the app. Stand Up Digital sued Hart for $7.2 million, accusing him of botching the launch of the app with his confession. A judge dismissed their suit, saying the comedian wasn’t obliged to tell his business partners his plans to reveal his affair.
News of Sabbag’s lawsuit have driven the tabloids into a frenzy of misinformation that continued as recently as this fall. In September, Star published a story that claimed Hart and his wife Parrish are headed for a split over this lawsuit. Gossip Cop reached out to a rep for Hart, who is authorized to speak on the star’s behalf and confirmed to us that the story was untrue.
The affair sparked other false rumors about the Night School actor as well. At the time, MediaTakeOut reported Sabbag was pregnant with Hart’s baby. Gossip Cop looked into the claim and can confirm it’s nothing but speculation. The only evidence the site cited was the fact that Sabbag refused to answer about if she used protection during the encounter. This whole series of events brought a wave of false stories to the tabloids. This was an extremely unfortunate incident that some in the media tried to exploit.