Jaleel White is hitting back at his “Family Matters” co-stars’ comments about his alleged “difficult” behavior on the beloved ’90s sitcom set.
White, 47, stopped by SiriusXM’s “Andy Cohen Live” this week to promote “Growing Up Urkel,” his newly-published memoir about his life growing up as the nerdy neighbor Steve Urkel on “Family Matters” from 1989 to 1998.
During the interview, Andy Cohen asked White how he felt about his co-stars Joe Marie Payton and Reginald VelJohnson claiming he was a handful on set.
“They, at one point, said publicly that you were not that easy to work with,” Cohen said. “Did that surprise you to hear?”
White didn’t mince his words.
“They’re also over 70, and I’ve been told not to argue with my elders from the time I was 12 years old,” he responded. “So you know, with Jo Marie, it’s always like, what day did I catch her on or what day did the interviewer catch her? I talk about it in the book.”
He explained: “So, when you say ‘difficult,’ I’ll be self-aware enough to say, ‘okay.’”
Recalling that he started the show when he was around 13 and finished when he was 22, the actor continued, “You know, as a 13-year-old kid, anytime I was called to set, I always brought my basketball. I dribbled my basketball everywhere, and I can hear the script supervisor to this day, Joyce Webb, going, ‘Oh, here he comes with that basketball.’ It was tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap constantly.”
“It annoyed everybody,” Cohen interjected, to which White added, “If that is the extent to which I was called ‘difficult,’ then okay. I digress.”
In 2022, Payton — who played Harriette Baines Winslow, the matriarch of the family that lived next door to Urkel — told Entertainment Tonight that White would “run wild and do whatever he wanted to do, thinking he can say what he wants to say, you know, and hurt people’s feelings and all that.”
She later backpedaled on her comments.
“Yes, sometimes you bump heads and things,” Payton, 74, said in 2023, per People. “But I’ll always love him. He was always a child to me, and I don’t care how old he is, he’s still a child to me … to me, no matter how old he gets, he’ll still be a baby. And I forgive everything because I have that kind of heart to get past stuff.”
VelJohnson, 72, played the family’s patriarch, Carl Winslow, and addressed his relationship with White while speaking with ET during the outlet’s “Iconic TV Dads” special for Father’s Day 2022.
“He was a wonderful kid, [but] I think working with him was a challenge. Working with everybody was a challenge, and there were some moments where he was a little difficult,” the actor said, adding, “But overall, I have nothing but good memories from him.”
White also talked to Cohen about a possible “Family Matters” reboot, telling fans not to hold their breath.
“I was offered a blind contract with no script and half the pay that I made leaving the show, right? So, I’m like, ‘Wait, wait, what do you mean?’ I don’t get to meet any producers. I don’t get to see a script. ‘We’ll pay you this,’” he claimed he was told during reboot talks. “And it’s like, you know, if it’s just a cash grab and, you know, I just, I’m not interested in that.”
“If I touch anything that’s associated with Family Matters,” White added, “I want to advance the legacy and I want to help the kids’ careers.”
White’s memoir hit bookshelves today (Tuesday, Nov. 19). He made headlines earlier this week after claiming in the book that “Family Matters” executives instructed him to swap Urkel’s signature tight overalls for looser-fitting jeans because of his “bulge.”
“Family Matters” ran for 9 seasons over 10 years. The series was nominated for one Emmy during its TV reign and won several NAACP Image Awards. White walked away with seven Image Awards for Outstanding Performance in a Youth or Children’s Series/Special and Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series for his role as Urkel.
