She’s clearly not having it. Janet Hubert, the actress who played the part of the original Aunt Vivian on Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, took to Facebook on Tuesday, March 28, to slam the cast’s recent reunion in a scathing post.
“I know the media hoe Alphonso Ribero has posted his so called reunion photo,” the outspoken 61-year-old actress wrote. “Folks keep telling me about it. He was always the ass wipe for Will. There will never be a true reunion of the Fresh Prince. I have no interest in seeing any of these people on that kind of level.”
On Monday, Ribeiro, 45, shared a shot of himself, Tatyana Ali (Ashley Banks), Karyn Parsons (Hilary Banks), Will Smith (as himself), Daphne Reid (Hubert’s replacement as Aunt Viv) and Joseph Marcell (Geoffrey Butler).
“Always amazing to spend an afternoon with my Fresh Prince family,” the America’s Funniest Home Videos host captioned the shot. “Wishing that James Avery was still with us to make this complete.” (Avery died at the age of 68 in December 2013 following complications from open heart surgery; he played beloved patriarch Uncle Phil.)
Hubert played the role of sassy Aunt Viv until she was summarily fired from the hit series in 1993. She and Smith, 48, have had a long-standing feud since they shared the small screen together.
In her Facebook post Tuesday, Hubert revealed that she plans to put her anger and frustration to good use — in the form of a forthcoming memoir.
“I am not offended in the least, by this photo …” she wrote. “It was an event for Karen’s charity. It does however prompt me to take some meetings in Hollywood to pitch my memoir PERFECTION IS NOT A SITCOM MOM, and tell of the behind the scenes story before I leave this earth.”
In January 2016, Hubert similarly got into a tiff with Smith and his family when she offered up her two cents after Smith’s wife, Jada Pinkett Smith, led the charge with an Oscars boycott protesting the lack of actors of color among the year’s nominees.
“Here’s the other thing, for you to ask other actors to jeopardize their careers … You know damn well, you don’t do that,” she said in a four-minute YouTube clip at the time. “They don’t care! I find it ironic that somebody who has made their living and made millions and millions of dollars from the very people [who are doing this] … That is not the way life works, baby. It’s very suspect to me.”
