Opinion: Cardi B, Russell Simmons, Moriah Mills and Nauseating Celebrity Overshares

We’re in a season of celebrities oversharing on social media … and it’s making my toes itch.

The ever-volatile Offset-Cardi B marriage made news again when the Migos rapper posted on Instagram that Cardi had cheated on him. What followed was a series of public Cardi responses that I’m sure have every marriage counselor clutching their rosary beads.

On June 19, former adult film star and current social media “influencer” (I guess) Moriah Mills was banned from Twitter after she harassed New Orleans Pelicans power forward Zion Williamson on the platform. For two whole weeks, Mills posted several X-rated tweets tagging Williamson in a saga that felt like it could be made into a Tubi-exclusive soap opera.

Apparently, Mills was upset that Williamson had impregnated another woman while they were together. She posted private text messages between herself and Williamson, exposed his sexual predilections and went on a running riot of oversharing the NBA player’s personal information.

The final straw (or at least, that’s the way it looked on social media) was when Mills threatened the illegal act of leaking their purported sex tapes if the NBA didn’t trade Williamson.

That same week, entrepreneur Kimora Lee Simmons and her daughters, Aoki and Ming, had a very public and groan-inducing Father’s Day squabble with their pops, hip-hop pioneer and mogul Russell Simmons. It started when Ming wished Kimora a Happy Father’s Day, and Russell responded on his Instagram page suggesting that he’s estranged from his daughters because of Kimora.

What came next were leaked texts of Russell apparently fussing at Aoki, a sob-filled audio from Aoki suggesting Russell is damaging her mental health, Kimora explaining how abusive Russell has been to other women (which isn’t too hard to believe), and a video of Russell yelling at Aoki over FaceTime … with no volume.

Mills and the Simmons family had Black Twitter buzzing during a relatively slow week before a bunch of rich people got lost in a submarine the size of a minivan in the ocean depths. Though stuff like this serves as ambrosia for the drama-hungry internet, both incidents felt grimy and highlighted that we’re deep in a period of celebrity oversharing that we can all do without — especially the celebrities who overshare.

Sharing too much is detrimental to brands and reputations, and it’s entirely unnecessary. Take Ja Morant, who is in the top tenth of one percent of basketball talent, which has netted him a nine-figure NBA salary. He could use his Instagram Stories to share the occasional on-a-yacht-with-honeys-in-Miami video, or perhaps a nice wholesome video of him surprising his mama with a Bugatti Veyron or something. But no … he’s perfectly intent on breaking the NBA ethics code by flashing a gun in front of a camera twice inside of three months.

The second video earned him a 25-game suspension; the video of him trying to convince everyone the gun was a lighter all along earned him the title of God’s favorite idiot.

If “overshare” was accompanied by a picture in the dictionary, however, it would be of Will and Jada Pinkett Smith. Presumably, they decided at some point that it’d be a good idea to share with the world all the shit that married couples keep to themselves. You know … to help other married couples out!

Their oversharing was driven by social media and the now-on-hold “Red Table Talk” series, in which Jada, her daughter Willow Smith and her mother, Adrienne Banfield-Norris, got into the meat and potatoes of every topic, no matter how touchy.

It was through the show that we learned about Jada’s involvement with loudmouthed R&B singer August Alsina while married to Will and the word “entanglement” was introduced into the lexicon. Many believe — fairly or otherwise — that the couple’s penchant for sharing too much created a toxic dynamic that motivated Will’s infamous attack on Chris Rock at the Oscars.

The couple — and really, every celebrity couple — should take a cue from Denzel and Pauletta Washington: They’ll celebrate 40 years of marriage this week without a ripple that any of us knows about.

I understand the appeal of a little celebrity-driven mess from time to time, but family beef involving parents and their children feels skeevier than most. Brian McKnight alienated a lot of his fan base by exhibiting behavior toward his adult children that can only be described as too petty for a 54-year-old.

Brian McKnight Jr. publicly condemned his father for apparently disowning his older kids in favor of his younger kids with his current wife. But did the elder handle that shit offline…? Nah, he doubled down and delivered his own “f**k them kids” video.

The erstwhile Lil’ Romeo Miller also started a public spat with his father, Master P, coming at his neck on Instagram because he paid tribute to Stephen “tWitch” Boss following his suicide. P apparently failed to do the same for his own daughter, Tytyana Miller, who died of an accidental drug overdose in 2022. Romeo and P engaged in a public back and forth before apparently squashing their beef at the top of the year.

We all have family issues, but as a papa’s boy, it rends my heart into pieces to even imagine fighting with my dad publicly. (It’d also be one-sided since he doesn’t own a smartphone … but I digress.)

For the sake of clarity, celebrity oversharing does not include going public with ideological or political stances. In fact, the world would be a better place if more famous folks didn’t just “shut up and dribble” and instead used their influence to move the needle on meaningful topics. Sadly, social media proves daily why famous people find it safer to just shut up.

Plenty of celebrities make it their literal business to profit from oversharing: The Kardashians have built a billion-dollar brand by keeping cameras trained on their extremely uninteresting, Black ballplayer-exploiting existences. While I realize that reality television plays fast and loose with “reality,” the Real Desperate Housewives of Whatever don’t need competition from celebrities who have everything to lose from being messy in the world.

Famous folks with large social media followings: Treat the aforementioned scandals as cautionary tales. Keep your personal life in-house and don’t let it damage your brand.

If you need further proof, just Google “Jada Pinkett Smith” and look at the first two pages of results.