Key Takeaways
- Chris Rock told GQ he hasn’t watched porn in “five, six years” and acknowledged that his past addiction caused him to be “not a great husband.”
- Rock said his 2016 divorce from Malaak Compton-Rock, rebuilding his finances through stand-up tours, and improving his life led to the 12-year gap between directing Top Five and Misty Green.
- The entertainer admitted he wasn’t proud of his past behavior and felt “severely humbled” after his divorce.
Being a habitual porn viewer soured Chris Rock’s marriage to his now ex-wife, Malaak Compton-Rock.
The comedian and Misty Green director recounted his past porn addiction in a GQ interview published Tuesday (Nov. 3) and detailed how it impacted his marriage. The former spouses divorced in 2016 after twenty years of marriage and share two biological daughters, Lola Simone, 24, and Zahra, 22.
In the interview, GQ Special Projects Editor Zach Baron asked Rock about the 12-year delay between romantic comedy Top Five and comedy-drama Misty Green, both of which the entertainer directed.
“Some of it is I got divorced. Nobody has a successful divorce, so that takes time,” Rock replied. “Then once it’s done, okay, you’re not sitting on the money you had before, so now you got to really make some money. So you go on tour, or two tours. So there was a lot of stand-up. There was a lot of getting my life together.”
Rock added that he was “not a great husband,” partly because he “watched a lot of porn.” “I don’t watch porn anymore. I haven’t watched porn in five, six years,” he continued.
The comedian went on to explain that he wasn’t “proud” of his past porn addiction, although it was “something I had to go through.”
“It’s like you watch a Marvel movie, and the guy, he has to test his powers. You know what I mean?” he continued. “Every Marvel movie, man or woman, they have to test their powers. They’re assholes. They get these powers and they’re assholes, and they’re racing trains and they’re lifting up ocean liners and they try to go to the sun, then they crash down because they realize they’re not God.”
“I tested my powers. I definitely realized I wasn’t God or anywhere near him, and I was severely humbled, as I should have been,” he concluded.
Rock opened up about his porn addiction and infidelity in his 2018 Netflix special Tambourine, and shared that both habits led him to become "sexually autistic" and "desensitized."
"When you start watching porn, any porn’ll do. 'Ah, they’re naked. Woo-hoo.' Then, later on, you’re all fucked up,” he said during the stand-up. “And you need a perfect porn cocktail to get you off. I was so fucked up, I needed an Asian girl with a black girl’s ass that speaks Spanish just to get my dick to move an inch. I’m a lot better now.”
