Hollywood producer Tyler Perry has said that he doesn’t believe in financially supporting his family members just because he is a billionaire.
He recently recalled firing his aunt from a job because she didn’t take it seriously.
Speaking during a candid conversation on the YouTube series “Den of Kings” with host Kirk Franklin, Perry broke down his tough love approach to mixing business and family.
According to him, his aunt used to call to ask for money a lot years ago, so he used the opportunity to offer her a job that will keep her financially stable.
“She said she wanted a job. She would always call asking for money, I would send her the money. I said, ‘Listen, I want to help you. I want to help you build this thing, not be welfare to you. So, let me give you a job.’” he said.
Revealing that his aunt accepted the job but failed to consistently show up to work, the filmmaker disclosed that he dismissed his own family to prove the point that we must all work to eat.
“‘Well, you gotta go,’ I told her. Because you want me to hand you the money, but you don’t want to work for it. See, that doesn’t work for me,” Tyler said.
The “Madea” producer maintained that he applies the same mentality to his 10-year-old son, who has to do chores around the house as payment whenever he needs something.
He concluded by saying that after his mother passed away in 2009, he sent letters to family members that she had asked him to financially support, telling them they now had 60 days to get a job.
“I don’t believe in giving us things that are just going to handicap us. That is the worst thing you can do.
I’m not going to keep supporting you like that.
They ended up getting up getting jobs. And it wasn’t even, like, jobs where they made a lot of money, but it was a job. It was something else for them to do, feel some pride in. That’s the same thing I would want someone to do for me,” he added.
