Gary Owen, an American comedian, has talked about how he doesn’t get along with his family. The 48-year-old star said on The Breakfast Club podcast on August 23 that he hasn’t talked to his kids in a year because he and his ex-wife, Kenya Duke, are no longer together.
The comedian went on to say:
“I’ve done it all. I went to Greensborough because my daughter goes to A&T. When I knocked on her door, she didn’t answer. Tried to catch up with her at the airport. On social media, I have been blocked. I’ve tried everything I can think of to get in touch with my daughter. I try to reach out, but I can’t.”
Owen also said that his children learned about his divorce, not from their parents but the news and social media:
“We kept it from the children. We were going to wait and do it all together, but TMZ told them.” After a year, Owen has decided to talk about what happened so that his kids can hear his side of the story. He said this on the podcast:
“Everybody kept telling me to tell my side. And, to be honest, it’s another effort to get my kids to listen to it.”
Gary Owen’s Opens Up About Divorce, Kids & More On The Breakfast Club! – iHeart https://t.co/PA7hct4kgl pic.twitter.com/DHih0BuKj0
— Steven Benke (@stevebenke) August 24, 2022
Gary Owen’s Estranged Wife Filed for Divorce in 2011
In 2003, Gary Owen and Kenya Duke got married. They have three kids together. Their names are Emilio, Kennedy, and Austin. Emilio, who is 31 years old, is Duke and Emilio Toliver Senior’s biological son. Owen and Duke have two biological children: Kennedy, who is 21, and Austin, who is 20.
Duke filed for divorce in Los Angeles County Superior Court, California, in March 2021. They had been together for 18 years, but they couldn’t work things out.
People Magazine said in June of that year that Duke had asked Owen for $44,000 a month in spousal support because she had given up her “promising career as an account manager” for the comedian.
Duke also made the following claim at the time:
“I want Gary to be forced to keep sending me monthly payments of $44,000, as he has been doing for the past four years. I also want him to pay me a lump sum of $88,000 for the last two months when he didn’t send me money.”
The podcaster and business owner didn’t hold back, though, and told everyone on social media what was going on in her marriage. In an Instagram post that has since been deleted, Duke said that Gary Owen had affairs while they were married and kept money from the family.
Hot New Whip Whop says that Kenya Duke shared a long post in which she tagged the comedian and told him to “stop lying about paying the mortgage,” which she allegedly did.
She went on to say:
“You say that squatters live here, but they don’t. We only have one problem: a liar and narcissist who no longer lives here. I am over here doing me. We won’t bother you for no reason at all. You do too much. You are the 48-year-old version of the terrible father you talk so meanly about on stage when he was in his 20s.”
Gary Owen also said something about Kenya’s claims when he went on the Wendy Williams Show in June 2021. He said that his lawyer told him not to talk about it at the time, but it seems that his divorce from Duke has a “big twist.”
“I can’t say much about it yet, but it’s a big deal. It changed the whole way the divorce was going.”
During the same interview, Gary Owen also talked about reports that he hasn’t seen his kids. He said that they are all adults, so it’s normal to not see them for a few months when they are adults. He gave more information by saying:
“When the news came out, my daughter was in college. She is living in Kenya and working. I’m traveling. We’re talking, we’re texting.”
Gary Owen also said that he is not a “deadbeat dad,” which is what Kenya Duke once called him when she accused him of cheating.