Kevin Hart’s father, Henry Witherspoon, has died. The celebrated comic actor shared the news in an emotional tribute post to Instagram on Thursday.
“RIP to one of the realest & rawest to ever do it…Love you dad,” Hart captioned a slideshow of photos showing himself with his dad and his family from different happy moments over the years.
“Gone but never forgotten….Give mom a hug for me,” Hart continued. “Y’all did good man. Thank you for everything.”
The 43-year-old movie star and father of four went on to share, “I’m a better father because of you We will all make you proud….”
Back in 2017, Hart opened up during an appearance on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert and got candid about how he repaired his once-troubled relationship with his father, and how he learned to be a better dad through his own dad’s mistakes.
“My kids actually think I’m the coolest dad on the planet … I know why I am the way that I am, my dad has a lot to do with that — the mistakes that my dad made, you know, the decisions to do drugs, being in and out of jail, in and out of our lives. I saw firsthand what not being present did and because of that, I now know what being present means,” Hart explained. “I know what that can do, I know what effect it can have on your child coming up.”
“Now, I was strong enough to deal with it coming up because I have a different attitude, I’m a positive guy,” he said of his difficult childhood. “I choose to go positive instead of negative a lot and because of that, my relationship with my dad is amazing now! And my dad understands how I feel and how I look at things, and now my dad is focusing on being the best grandparent that he possibly can.”
MORE: