Kevin Hart is back on the mend!
The Jumanji: The Next Level actor just made his first appearance on The Ellen Show since his car accident three months ago.
RELATED STORIES
Here, he shares how the experience has changed his life forever.
This past September, the actor and comedian was involved in a serious car accident that resulted in him having emergency back surgery.
His friend Jared Black had been driving Hart’s vintage Plymouth Barracuda in the early hours of the morning when Black lost control of the vehicle.
This caused the vehicle to veer off the road and crash into a wooden fence on Mulholland Highway in Malibu.
While both Hart and Black suffered major back injuries, no one, including the third passenger, faced life-threatening injuries.
Hart’s car, which he had given to himself as a 40th birthday present, was completely totalled, as shown from images obtained from “TMZ.”
Hart had loved that car so much, he even nicknamed it “Menace.”
Now, three months the accident, Kevin Hart is opening up about the experience and his recovery.
The Jumanji: The Next Level actor recently stopped by The Ellen Show to chat with Ellen DeGeneres.
“I am about 65 to 75 percent back to my physical self,” Hart said.
“Workouts are not full, I’m not lifting crazy weights, but I’m back to weighted workouts, agility, mobility, core workouts. I’m a little determined [expletive].”
When Ellen shared that there was a time when the actor couldn’t move, Hart got super blunt.
“I couldn’t wipe my [expletive],” he shared.
“My biggest triumph was when I put my socks on, when I put my socks on it was the biggest thing in the world.”
“You don’t realize that your back is connected to everything, so coming out of back surgery everything changed because you’re kinda helpless.”
“That’s when you see what really matters, who really matters. Life kind of hits you in a completely different way,” he added.
Thankfully, his family was there for him around-the-clock. This included his wife Eniko Parrish and their kids Hendrix, 12, Heaven, 14, and Kenzo Kash, 2.
“And you go ‘wow,’ Hart said about their support, “this is love.”
He also revealed that Oprah Winfrey was there for him!
Hart shared that the media mogul send him a huge floral arrangement after his accident.
It made him hilariously realize that “no one loves him like Oprah.”
The love and support he received during this time has completely changed the actor’s outlook on life.
“I’ve got a completely different look on life now, a much better one,” he shared.
“The things that you think matter, you realize don’t. Because if you’re gonna have room, it’s not about your level of success, it’s not about how much money you have…”
“It’s about those individuals and who you really mean the most to and who means the most to you.”
He continued: “I like saying, ‘Okay, it’s time to rebuild.'”
“But we’re not rebuilding to get back to the old you, we’re rebuilding to be better and become a new you. It’s a thing with me and my mindset that I embrace and I think from the days in the hospital when I realized I couldn’t do for myself.”
His first goal of “rebuilding” was, yes, learning how to wipe his butt himself.
“True story,” he shared.
“The first thing was me saying [to my wife], ‘Yo, I don’t like the fact, honey, that you gotta come in and you gotta get me together. My first goal is to get you out of this position.’ And I learned how to stretch and I started to get a little looser and looser. I started showering by myself, I started dressing by myself.”
Little by little, the actor’s recovery started to improve as he stayed home for three months straight.
“I’ve never been home for more than eight to ten days. Ever. Never,” he shared. “I’ve never been home for a consecutive period of ten days straight.”
“Being home for that amount of time being happy,” he said. “I was sat down. I feel like God sat me down.”
Now that “Jumanji: The Next Level” is almost out, though, the actor is back on the mend, attending premieres and doing press interviews.
We’re wishing him the best as he fully recovers!
And for more of Hart’s interview with Ellen, you can catch it here!
