Steve Harvey Was Homeless For 3 Years & Lived Out Of His Car Before Raking In Millions

Dec 08, 2022 by apost team

Steve Harvey is an American television and radio presenter, author, and businessman. Most of us know Harvey as a stand-up comedian and the host of the TV shows "Family Feud" and “The Steve Harvey Show.” The comedy legend has earned seven Daytime Emmys throughout his long career. But many people don't know about the struggles that Harvey went through before he was famous. The entertainer lived in his car for three years before he got his big break. 

Harvey seems like he's been in Hollywood forever. But he definitely wasn't born into fame. Growing up, he tried his hand at just about every job imaginable to make ends meet, including working as a boxer and a mailman. Harvey's dream was to make it big in the world of stand-up comedy. But after suffering a string of failures and filing for divorce from his ex-wife, he found himself homeless and struggling to survive. 

Through it all, Harvey put his family first, and they took the time to thank him for it on an episode of “The Steve Harvey Show” from 2015. The loving father was moved to tears by his stepson Jason’s tribute. The support of his family has pulled Harvey through all of the ups and downs of his life. In an interview a year later, Harvey shared that he has so many jobs because he is still in the mindset of needing to work constantly to support his family. 

Read on to learn more about Harvey’s family tributes, his financial hardships and what his estimated net worth is today. 

Harvey was born on Jan. 17, 1957, in Welch, West Virginia. His full name is actually Broderick Stephen Harvey Sr. as he was named after actor Broderick Crawford from the TV series “Highway Patrol.” Harvey and his family later moved to Cleveland, Ohio, where he graduated from Glenville High School in 1974. He had a severe stuttering problem as a child, but worked hard to overcome it – something that is definitely apparent in all of his work on television and radio. After finishing high school, Harvey went on to attend Kent State University and West Virginia University.

It wasn’t long before Harvey found his calling and performed his first stand-up comedy routine in 1985. However, finding his passion did not mean that he was finding success, as he actually struggled to make ends meet. According to People, Harvey found himself living in his car for three years during the late 1980s when he performed gigs that did not provide a hotel. He even showered at gas stations or swimming pool showers.

This was not the only tribulation Harvey was going through during this point in his life. He was also dealing with heartbreak, as his first marriage to Marcia Harvey ended in 1994. They tied the knot in 1981 and had two children together. 

Harvey did not give up on love, though, and married again to a woman named Mary Shackelford. They were married from 1996 until 2005 and had one child together, but the marriage was not meant to last. In June 2007, Harvey married Marjorie Bridges, the woman he cited for making him the man he is today. Bridges was already a mother to three children, all of whom Harvey happily adopted, according to The Sun.

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Throughout his life, Harvey has remained a dedicated family man. He fathered four biological children and gained three stepchildren in his third marriage, reports Good Housekeeping. 

On a special episode of Steve Harvey's talk show, his wife and seven children surprised him with a tribute for his birthday. Each tribute was moving in its own special way. But his stepson Jason's tribute was so touching that Harvey broke down in tears in front of a live audience.

Jason started his tribute by thanking Harvey for giving him his last name. But Harvey had given him much more than that. Jason talked about the fact that his biological father hadn't done much for him, and Harvey had stepped in and taken the role of a father figure. He told Harvey that he needed him to know how much he loved him. Truly, this was a father-and-son confession like no other.

Harvey broke down in tears during Jason's speech. He might have known that he meant a lot to his stepson, but now Jason was saying it out loud for possibly the first time. At this moment, it's clear that raising seven children in the midst of financial and emotional crises was worth it. And his children couldn't have found a better way to thank him.

Harvey was moved to tears again as he talked about his children and how much they meant to him. He said that this was the most important moment in his entire life. He reminded his children that he cared about them more than himself, and he wanted them to have the experience of caring about another person more than themselves. And in the end, he said he would defend their honor until his dying day and he was proud to be their father.

When Harvey was starting out in comedy he was making as little as $50 a week. “It kills me when I hear very successful people say, ‘I always knew I would get here,’” he said to People in 2016. “I didn’t. I always hoped I would get somewhere, but this is above and beyond. My imagination didn’t even go this big.”

The difficulty of living out of his car and finding public pools to take a shower took a toll on the comedian. “That was an ugly period, just very painful,” Harvey shared about being homeless in the 1980s. “Everybody has a moment when they turn back, when you say to yourself, ‘This is too much.’ I had it on several occasions.”

Harvey hit one of those breaking points in a hotel bathroom while trying to clean up before a show. “I sat down and started crying, but a voice said, ‘If you keep going, I’m going to take you places you’ve never been,’” he explained. “It was like God said, ‘Don’t quit, you’re almost there.’”

Through it all, Harvey did everything he could to provide for his children. He sent his ex-wife the money he made from his occasional stand-up gigs. After failing to find his big break in the 1980s, Harvey finally landed a hosting gig for the TV show "Showtime at the Apollo." That show paved his way to stardom, and the rest is history.

However, the experience of being homeless and struggling to make ends meet has stuck with Harvey. “I’m running from homelessness,” he shared. “I can’t ever be in that position again. If my show gets canceled, I’ve got three more. I don’t have any free time, but I have 12 jobs.”

The star’s net worth is estimated at $200 million.

Are you a fan of Steve Harvey? What do you think of his transformation from being homeless to a multi-millionaire? Let us know and be sure to pass this on to your friends and family that watch “Family Feud.”