Chris Rock wasn’t always a "good husband".
The 52-year-old comic split from spouse Malaak Compton-Rock – the mother of his daughters Lola, 14, and 12-year-old Zahra – after 18 years of marriage in 2014, with their divorce finalised last year, and he takes some of the responsibility for their separation.
Referring to a line in his movie ‘I Think I Love My Wife’ in which he talks about Nelson Mandela splitting from his wife Winnie six months after getting out of jail, he replied: "Some of it was a prophecy. I wasn’t a good husband a lot of the times."
Though Chris insists he has never had a "breakdown", he did have to "reset" his life after splitting from Malaak.
He told Rolling Stone magazine: "I never had one. Getting divorced, you have to f***ing start over. You get to reset. It’s not a breakdown, but something in your life broke down."
The ‘Top Five’ star doesn’t want his divorce to make him an "angry" person on stage as he knows that isn’t a "healthy" direction to take his act.
He said: "I asked myself, ‘Do I want to be angry for a year?’ It’s not a cool place to be. It’s not healthy. I’m not (intense comic) Sam Kinison – I loved Kinison, but that’s not where I want to hang out every night."
But in his stage show, Chris claims he thought he could get away with bad behaviour in his marriage because of his fame – but he insists that is actually not true and his high profile only made him subject to more scrutiny.
He said: "That’s bulls**t. That actually goes the other way. My faults are magnified. Your significant other, if they really love you, has a high opinion of you. And you let them down."
And he has toned down talking about his relationship with Malaak on stage because he doesn’t think it is fair to her as she doesn’t have a similar platform.
He said: "It’s not fair. I have a mic, she doesn’t. God forbid people are bugging her in the supermarket. That’s not cool. I’m going to have to see her at weddings and graduations."
Though Chris and Malaak are no longer together, he hasn’t moved far away because he wants to be close to his children.
He said: "We live in a world where men are assumed to not have feelings.
"All my friends assume I moved into the city after my divorce, away from my girls. When I say I bought a house around the corner, it blows their minds."
Chris Rock wasn’t always a ‘good husband’
