Kevin Hart Opens Up About What He Learned From His Life-Changing Car Accident

Kevin Hart The Upside screenshot
(Image credit: STX Entertainment)

You’d be hard pressed to find a star in Hollywood who's putting out more projects than Kevin Hart right now. The fact that the Borderlands star is going so hard is even more impressive when you consider he has been recovering from serious injuries he received in a car accident right before the pandemic hit. Two years after his life-changing accident, Hart has opened up about what he has learned from the experience and how his mindset has shifted on what is really important in life. 

The actor recently opened up about how his priorities changed after his car accident and how the near-death experience re-established how important it is for him to put his family first. During the episode of All The Smoke, which is hosted by former NBA players Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson, the comedian explained how he was able to become the type of father he had never been before. On the accident waking him up, he said:

I mean it’s the day I almost died, but the day I woke up. That’s when the priorities changed, that’s when life was different. ‘Are you valuing the right things? Do you really value the correct things?’ And the correct things, of course, are your loved ones, your family. And there’s moments when you overlook that because you’re so caught up into the job, the money, the success. And you sometimes make your family secondary to all the moves that you gotta make out here. The accident/pandemic is the longest I’ve ever sat down in my life, but it’s the best time that I’ve ever had because I got to see what matters the most. And the value that came from that was prioritizing them and their needs, in a way that I never have.

The Jumanji star has 4 children, the youngest of which was born after his accident, and a new found look on the value of family and being a present father. On the same episode, Kevin Hart talked about how all of his life experiences have been compiled in order to share knowledge with his kids and guide them to doing the right thing in life. He also fully aware that he can't and won't always be perfect for them, but he believes his children will still be able to thrives. This is how Hart puts it, exactly:

And I think that this is the beauty of getting old, right? The beauty of getting older is,’Yo, I’m going to step in a lot of shit. I’m going to mess up a lot of shoes.’ And that’s OK. I’m OK with that. I don’t live in this world of false reality of perfection, and I think somewhere the lines have gotten blurred in today’s time. People are searching for that thing, it don’t exist. I’m fine with my fuck-ups, I’m fine with every last one of them. And I love what comes from it, because the person that you are and the conversations and stories that I’m able to share with this group of four, these fucking four people that look at me like, ‘Yo, dad. That’s dad.’ Like I’m able to share some shit, good, bad, ugly, that can hopefully put them in position to do the right thing in life. And even if they don’t, they’ll be fine, because I know that I’m doing my job. And owning shit when I do it, learning from shit when I can, educating myself when it’s free, being OK with being flawed, showing that it’s OK to be better. All of the things that we struggle with in life, if I can be a product of that and be a better display to them, I take that every day of the week. The accident, that was the lightbulb of making sure that I’m doing that correctly.

Even though Kevin Hart is now dedicated to putting his children first and serving as a guide for them, his current work ventures will also ensure that they are well provided for. One of Hart's latest projects is a new Netflix film, in which he stars alongside fellow father Mark Wahlberg. He has a fair amount of business ventures in his future as well. How he finds the time for it all is a mystery, but he certainly looks and sounds like a man who knows exactly what he's doing.

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Carlie Hoke
Content Writer

Constantly thinking about books, coffee, and the existential dread I feel from Bo Burnham’s Inside.  While writing I’m also raising a chaotic toddler, who may or may not have picked up personality traits from watching one too many episodes of Trailer Park Boys.