TIFFANY HADDISH'S PATH TO PEACE

Every morning Tiffany Haddish wakes up and takes stock.

- JANINE RUBENSTEIN

"To be here now and to actually survive what I lived, it's like, I made it. I'm not dead. Every day it's another chance to do better." And, she adds pragmatically, "it's a chance to add more to my next book." As for her current book, I Curse You With Joy, out May 7, the comedian, actress and author, 44, whose hilarious turn in the 2017 summer hit Girls Trip made her a star, picks up where she left off six years ago. Amid her meteoric rise, her 2017 debut memoir, The Last Black Unicorn, became a New York Times bestseller, with its raunchy and riveting retellings of her pursuit of comedy after a rough childhood spent in and out of the Los Angeles foster care system. "This is very different than where I was then," she says of her second offering, which was delayed as she navigated tumultuous years in the spotlight. But now, as Haddish is known to say, she ready: "I wanted this book to be about something. I felt like I needed to live a little more life and get a better understanding of where I am now."

Much has happened in the star's wild world since she burst onto the scene and it hasn't all been great. Frankly, she says, "f--fame." On one hand, she's enjoyed two celebrated Netflix specials, sold-out stand-up shows and roles in movies like 2023's Haunted Mansion. On the other, she's had to navigate a slew of major controversies. The first came in the form of a resurfaced 2014 Funny or Die skit, which featured Haddish and comedian Aries Spears and involved minors and jokes about sexual innuendo. Though one of the actors filed a suit alleging child sexual abuse in 2022, Haddish says she wasn't involved in the creative process or the scenes in question, and the suit was dropped. "I hated that I had to go through that, but I had to so I could create better, know better and do better," she says.