‘I felt bad from the start’

Key Points

• Chris Redd and Kenan Thompson starred together on Saturday Night Live and played brothers on the sitcom Kenan.

• Redd has opened up about falling in love with Thompson’s ex-wife, Christina Evangeline, saying, “I hate doing something to somebody that I know would hurt them.”

• Thompson filed for divorce from Evangeline in June 2022 after more than 10 years of marriage and sharing two daughters.

Chris Redd is breaking his silence on the circumstances that led to him dating Saturday Night Live castmate Kenan Thompson‘s ex-wife, Christina Evangeline.

In a lengthy, tear-filled video shared to his Instagram on Tuesday captioned, “What have you sacrificed for love?” Redd admitted he isn’t usually one for New Year’s resolutions, but this year he is making an exception, and has one resolution in mind: to be more vulnerable.

To that end, he began, “I wanted to address something that’s kind of just, I guess, been around for a long time, about four, five years now, but, you know, I’ve never addressed it. I know a lot of people talk about me dating Kenan Thompson’s ex-wife, and how that came to be. And I’m gonna just tell it to you straight.”

He explained that he’s seen all the chatter and the news coverage about their relationship, but contrary to what some say, “there wasn’t a plan” and he’s “not the type of person to scheme on a person” or date someone one of his friends is with.

“It was a very unique, nuanced thing that happened, you know, we were all cool, it was never anything crazy until it got crazy,” he said.

“Bottom line is, while I was at [SNL], I had some pills issues, I got some pill problems, nothing too crazy, but crazy for my Black ass, you know?” Redd explained. “I was even selling some to the people, to some of my castmates,” he admitted, before clarifying, “I’m not gonna snitch on y’all motherf—ers.”

He joked that Adderall gives you “super hearing and s—,” and as such, he would hear his coworkers talking about him behind his back, but he claims no one reached out to help, except Evangeline.

“It’s crazy how somebody will watch you destroy yourself,” Redd said, explaining that Thompson’s ex was “the only one to call me on my s—, help me with my s—, she helped me with my therapy journey, and she told me things about her life that made me look at a lot of people involved in it differently.”

“In that time, we fell in love,” Redd continued, “and I felt bad from the start. It’s always felt like an emotional double-edged sword for me, because I really love everything me and Kenan did, bro. I really appreciated every piece of work we put together, I think that we were a great team, and I hate doing something to somebody that I know would hurt them.”

Thompson filed for divorce from Evangeline in June 2022 after more than 10 years of marriage, according to the records obtained by TMZ at the time. Per the outlet, the two had been separated more than year prior to the filing. The former couple shares two daugters, Georgia, 11, and Gianna, 7.

Redd was on SNL for five seasons starting in 2017. He also played Thompson’s brothers on the self-titled NBC sitcom Kenan, which ran for two seasons from 2021–2022. Redd left SNL in 2022 after five seasons.

In his Instagram video, he lamented that while he “did choose love,” he felt nevertheless “there’s different ways I could have went about this.” According to Redd, he and Thompson did discuss it and continued to work together for “a year” before “everybody found out, and s— changed.”

“But I was in love, and I was spiraling out,” he added. “That’s what happened, and by the time everybody found out, the world found out, I was out of there, SNL, you know?”

Redd also addressed the October 2022 incident in which he was punched in the nose by an unknown assailant outside a comedy club in New York City.

“When I got punched in the face… most people who know me from back home would know that I would be retaliating in a heartbeat, but not this time, bro,” Redd said of the assault, “This time it felt like fair — fair enough.” He didn’t provide further details on the attack.

Get your daily dose of entertainment news, celebrity updates, and what to watch with our EW Dispatch newsletter.

“This wasn’t meant for laughs,” he said of his video. “I’m sorry to the people I disappointed with this, just know that it wasn’t to be a d—, it felt like a love I couldn’t miss out on, and I had to shoot for it.”

Redd promised in his video that his new show, Caveat, which is coming to New York City on Jan. 28, would not focus on all of this stuff, but would instead be about “love.”

A rep for SNL and Thompson did not immediately return an Entertainment Weekly request for comment.

Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly