During an appearance on the Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, Steve Harvey spilled the beans and told the story about what really happened the night he announced Miss Columbia as the winner of the Miss Universe Pageant instead of the rightful winner Miss Philippines. Harvey said it was the most gut wrenching time of his life. He said there shouting and hollering going on back stage, trying to decide what to do.
The pageant officials decided to wait until the next day to make the announcement, But Harvey refused to save face that way and was determined to face the music. Miss Columbia’s family was in the front row and after he explained what had happened, they began cursing him in Spanish.
“The Family Feud” host described the moment he realized he’d just announced the wrong name as:
“Four minutes of pure hell.”
While Miss Colombia was crying with excitement, backstage people were saying every curse word in the English language.
But this is where Harvey gets some credit, despite his major mishap.
According to the host, the producers wanted to wait until the next day, where they would break the news to the media.
Rather than prolong the incident, Harvey took it upon himself to get back out on stage and correct his mistake:
“I said nah (sic) man, I’m going to go do it now. And I walked out there…
It was the most gut-wrenching walk I’ve ever had in my life and I went back out there.
But you know what? I was brought up that way man. The kind to just face whatever it is. So I just went out there and dealt with it and I tried to straighten it out.”
Harvey later added that while he was breaking the news, he looked down to see the front row filled with Miss Colombia’s family.
It wasn’t long before Harvey said he found himself being screamed at in Spanish.
For those of you who don’t remember the incident, here is the video:
https://youtu.be/3DKDaSd-4nY