Kevin Hart Extortion Scandal: Breaking Down Everything You Need to Know

A look at everything that's happened in the Kevin Hart extortion scandal so far.

Kevin Hart book signing
Image via Getty/Johnny Louis
Kevin Hart book signing

There's always been one statement that rings true when it comes to growing up and dealing with relationships: how you get 'em is how you may lose 'em. If that statement sounds like bullshit, just look at the situation Kevin Hart's in right now.

In 2011, the comedian and his first wife Torrei finalized their divorce, citing "irreconcilable differences," although to let Torrei tell it, Kevin cheated on her with Eniko Parrish, who he ended up marrying in 2016. This past May, Hart and Parrish announced they are expecting their first child, but what we imagine they weren't expecting was Kevin to be caught up in a new batch of cheating rumors.

He initially deflected cheating allegations back in July; at the time, Hart chose to "laugh at the BS," but it looks like whatever's going on now is different. Over the weekend, a flurry of rumors about Kevin Hart, another woman (women?), a sex tape, a cryptic apology, and the FBI popped up on social media and all of the gossip sites. What the hell is going on?

Let's dive head-first into this scandal, which at the very least, paints Kevin Hart as a liar who did, in fact, take the risks involved in cheating.

Kevin Hart's initial apology

Out of nowhere, Kevin Hart addressed his 54.6 million Instagram followers with an apology. "I'm at a place in my life where I feel like I have a target on my back," Hart began, "and because of that I should make smart decisions and recently I didn't. I made a bad error in judgment and put myself in an environment where only bad things can happen and they did. In doing that I know that I am going to hurt the people closest to me, who I've talked to and apologized to. Being my wife and my kids."

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This apology felt like it came completely out of left field, but made a bit more sense when TMZ reported that an at-the-time unidentified woman was hitting him up for money over a video she had of what TMZ called "NOT a sex tape, but looks like a prelude to sex." It's said that there was footage of the people on the tape having sex, but in that footage you couldn't tell it was Hart. Either way, this was seen as Hart getting ahead of whatever would be released, and explains why Hart spoke on his IG about someone trying to get "financial gain" from his missteps.

"At the end of the day, man, I just simply gotta do better, but I'm also not going to allow a person to have financial gain off of my mistakes and in this particular situation that's what was attempted," he said. "I said I'd rather fess up to my mistakes."

More details emerge on the multimillion-dollar extortion plot

TMZ, who has been ahead on this story because this is what they do, reported the following day that Kevin Hart was hit with multiple demands for cash for what they said is a video that shows Hart and a woman being "sexually suggestive" in bed, followed by footage of some sexual activity. At one point, the monetary demands hit eight(!) figures, which, LOL. You knew that wasn't happening, right extorters?

What's deeper is that the FBI is said to have already identified the woman in the tape, and that she was either the person who hit Hart up with the demands or owned an iPhone that was then compromised by whoever was making these demands.

The reason behind the extortion

These damn extortionists are bold. Not only did they openly say WHY they are hitting Kevin Hart up for millions of dollars for this four minute and 47 second video, but they dropped a video reminiscent of the Star Wars opening crawl explaining their reasoning. Again, via TMZ.


The clip dropped a pretty deep claim: the extortionist believes Hart set up that Hurricane Harvey relief fund as a way to look like the good guy when this video scandal arose. "This so-called good deedm" the clip reads, "was done to get ahead as he knew this damaging footage was one click away from being exposed as the liar and cheater he is. Kevin Hart was privy to me wanting to expose him as I have made countless attempts to expose this information to various blogs, in an attempt to also get paid."

Whoever put this video together has a grip of petty to them; they made sure to intersperse clips of an old interview on The Breakfast Club where Hart spoke on why he remains faithful. In the mean time, while working on his new movie Night School in Georgia, it's been reported that Hart has been in communication with the FBI on several occasions to let them know everything he knows about this situation.

The identity of the extortionist(s)

This is the most frustrating piece of information, for a number of reasons. As stated earlier, the FBI was trying to identify if the woman in the video was the one who cooked up this extortion plot against Hart or if it was someone who got a hold of the videos who did it. This leads to a bunch of miscommunication and rumors.

Some tried to say that the woman in the video was Monique "Momo" Gonzalez, who is a singer out of Miami, but she says she was not the woman in the video, which reps from Kevin Hart agree with. Gonzalez went even further, saying that while she was the woman who was spotted in a car with Hart back in July, the two of them were friends, and never hooked up. Whatever the case may be, the internets have gone in on her.

TMZ says the woman in the photo at the beginning of the tape says she knew nothing of the video tape, and feels like a victim. They also say she's lawyer'd up, and is demanding upwards of $420,000 to take a lie detector test. According to a new report from TMZ, this woman's name is Montia Sabbag, a.k.a. Montiah Sabagg, a 27-year-old stripper who lives in Long Beach, California. Kevin and Sabagg reportedly never met before the incident in question, but shared a "wild" weekend in Las Vegas some time in August. As it's been stated, while it's hard to tell who's getting it in during the actual sexual activity in this video, TMZ says the two people walking around in various stages of undress are Montia and Kevin.

Authorities are said to be looking to serve search warrants for all parties involved during this weekend to figure out who is behind the extortion plot. Apparently, the extortionists hit up at least one media outlet for $15 million for the clip before hitting up Hart himself.

As of now, it's up to the FBI to figure out how to handle this. It's hard to tell if Montia Sabbag was acting alone, was hacked, or is working in party with other individuals to take Kevin Hart down. It's also telling that there's another woman Hart was spotted in a whip with before this; even if they didn't get it in, this is a pattern of behavior that has Hart looking terrible out here. He might not lose his career in Hollywood (hell, Woody Allen and other trash men are still able to create), but he could end up losing another wife.

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