Mo’Nique reveals how she forgave Lee Daniels after 13-year feud

Mo’Nique has finally moved on from her 13-year feud with her “Precious” director Lee Daniels.

“It’s a new chapter,” the Oscar winner, 55, said regarding their ongoing drama in a lengthy profile by the Hollywood Reporter.

“But not because of Hollywood,” she clarified, saying that it’s a “new chapter” because her grandchildren are growing up.

“Those things, for me, are the priority,” she said.

The “Parkers” alum offered insight into the friendship they built when they first met at now-closed LA restaurant Reign in 2004 — just a half-decade before making the 2009 indie drama.

Daniels, 63, asked her to star in his 2005 directorial debut, “Shadowboxer,” whose cast included Helen Mirren and Cuba Gooding Jr.

“We knew each other when there were no cameras on, when there was no red carpet,” she recalled. “We knew each other on 3 a.m. phone calls.

“I saw a genius,” Mo’Nique said of watching Daniels direct.

“I saw someone who was fearless, such a visionary, someone unafraid to put these characters together unapologetically.”

Fast forward to March 7, 2010, at the 82nd Academy Awards when Mo’Nique won the Best Supporting Actress trophy for her role in “Precious.”

Unfortunately, she didn’t thank Daniels in her acceptance speech.

Their rift reportedly began when Mo’Nique believed that she wouldn’t be paid enough during the promotional tour for “Precious.”

She also felt tired due to her hectic schedule and needed to take a breather and, later, alleged that Daniels “blackballed” her from getting parts in Hollywood.

A few years down the road, when Daniels was working on his 2013 Forest Whitaker flick “The Butler,” he reached out to Mo’Nique to star.

However, Oprah Winfrey scored the role that the stand-up comedian was up for — that of Whitaker’s wife, Gloria Gaines.

Daniels and Mo’Nique didn’t speak again for a few more years after “The Butler” — until the filmmaker reached out and noted that he wanted her for the part of Cookie Lyon in the Fox musical family drama “Empire.” 

Instead, Taraji P. Henson won the part and eventually received a Golden Globe for her performance in 2016.

In 2022, the duo’s relationship began to heal when Daniels asked Mo’Nique to appear in his thriller “The Deliverance” — a role she accepted.

“He was like, ‘OK, so I want to talk to you about this part.’ I said, ‘Lee, we can’t talk about a part until we talk,’” she said of his phone outreach to her. “And he was like, ‘I know.’ And then we had a real conversation. That was the moment that he said, ‘I’m going to apologize to you and your family for anything I’ve done to hurt y’all.’

“And what I said to him was, ‘I appreciate that and we are grateful for the apology. But because it happened publicly, you have got to apologize publicly.’

“And you know what he says? ‘Tell me when and where,’” she recalled.

Daniels then apologized to the BET star in April 2022 during her “Mo’Nique and Friends: April Fools Day With The Queen of Comedy” event in Staten Island shortly after asking her to star in “The Deliverance.” 

“I am so sorry for hurting you in any way that I did,” Daniels said to her onstage at the time.

“She was my best friend. My best friend. [‘Precious’] was God working through both of us. And we’re going to f- -kin’ do it again,” he continued.

Mo’Nique — whose new Netflix special, “My Name Is Mo’Nique,” premieres on April 4 — reflected on the touching moment.

“I don’t know if it’s ever been done in history — that a big Hollywood director came out and apologized to an actress for a wrongdoing,” she said.