Tyler Perry doesn’t believe in financially supporting his family members just because he’s a billionaire.
The media mogul revealed that he once fired his aunt from a job because she didn’t take it seriously.
Perry shared his tough love approach to mixing finances and family during a candid conversation on YouTube series “Den of Kings” with host Kirk Franklin and fellow guests Derrick Hayes and Jay “Jeezy” Jenkins.
“She said she wanted a job. She would always call asking for money, I would send her the money,” Perry said. “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.’”
But Perry said she wasn’t coming into work and was constantly calling off.
“‘Well, you gotta go,’” he recalled telling 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.”
The “Madea” creator said he applies the same mentality to his 10-year-old son, Aman — if there are certain things he wants, he has to do chores for them.
“I don’t believe in giving us things that are just going to handicap us,” he explained. “That is the worst thing you can do.”
Perry later revealed that after his mother passed away in 2009, he sent letters to family members that she asked him to financially support, telling them they now had 60 days to get a job.
“I’m not going to keep supporting you like that,” he said he told them.
He shared that all of the family members did end up finding employment.
“And it wasn’t even, like, jobs where they made a lot of money, but it was a job,” he said. “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.”
Perry’s net worth is $1.4 billion, according to Forbes, mainly due to him owning 100 percent of the content he creates. His “Madea” franchise has grossed over $660 million.
Perry, 55, has previously spoken about consciously not spoiling his son. He revealed that his only child only gets “books and Legos” for Christmas and flies coach during his appearance on “The Sherri Shepherd Show” in December 2024.
“He was complaining once, this was about five years ago, he was complaining about flying commercial because the lines were so long,” he recalled.
He and Aman’s mother, Gelila Bekele, both decided their child was flying coach from then on.
“So he understands, I worked, he did not,” he explained. “So when he works, he can learn that lesson.”
“He’s not gonna be one of those ridiculously spoiled rich kids, I can’t stand that,” Perry continued. “He ain’t got no money.”
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