Endless rumors have swirled since Steve Harvey infamously announced the wrong winner at the 2015 Miss Universe pageant. Now, the host is pulling up a chair to set the record straight and clear the waves.
During a radio interview on The Steve Harvey Morning Show , the 58-year-old television personality revisited the initial moments after realizing his international blunder, awarding Miss Colombia Ariadna Gutiérrez with the crown instead of the rightful champion Miss Philippines Pia Wurtzbach.
"I said the name that was on the card. When I walked off, everything was cool…and then, after that, all hell broke loose," Harvey said on the airwaves. "All I heard was people say, 'That's the wrong name'...and all I hear is confusion backstage."
As he has previously shared, the card he held on stage included three names—the names of the two runner-ups and the winner.
"Now I got a guy in my ear going, 'We gotta do something! We gotta do something!" he continued. "So, I took it upon myself and I walked out there to do something."
In those crucial moments, he heeded the expectations of his father.
"Did I make a mistake? Yes I did, wholeheartedly...so, I did what I was trained to do by my father," he shared. "You make a mistake, own up to it, so I went out there and I said I made a mistake And I tried to fix it, I tried to fix it right there."
"All I could think of was here's a problem," said Harvey, who has two adult daughters of his own. "The lady who won Miss Philippines is standing there as a loser and she got all the votes and the points."
While he inevitably got the crown on the right coiffed head, not all wrongs could be righted.
"When I did it, it was horrible for Miss Colombia and she's the only one I haven't had a chance to talk to," the host revealed about the last several weeks. "I've had a chance to talk to Miss Philippines. I've talked to all the pageant people. I've talked to people backstage. Even me and the director had a long talk, but I haven't been able to reach out and talk to Miss Colombia. Now, have I tried? Yes, but have gotten not a response."
Though he has made nearly every necessary apology, he still has a lasting regret.
"The only regret I have is how this must have made the woman from Colombia feel...I don't feel sorry for me, I don't feel sorry for the pageant. The pageant will now be bigger than it's ever been," he said. "I felt for her more than me because...I haven't been waiting all my life for this moment."
Some false claims continue to haunt him relentlessly, particularly rumors that he was ill-prepared or that the entire ordeal was a purposeful act to gain attention.
"I went to more rehearsals than I've ever gone to for anything," he revealed, adding that he attended a table read, full walk through, and full show dress rehearsal before the big night.
As for the question marks surrounding a potential publicity stunt, Harvey refuses to participate in that "BS."
"You want to do a publicity stunt, you do it yourself. I'm already famous," the Family Feud host said. "Do you really think I wanted to be famous like this?"
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