In a March 31, 2026, interview with comedian and interviewer Ziwe, Leslie Jones called marriage “legalized slavery” and advised young fans not to get married. She compared a husband expecting a “tradwife” to someone who “might as well pull out a whip” and “a chain.”
Jones said her father explicitly raised her “not to be anybody’s wife” and observed that most married people she knows are now divorced. The comments, made while promoting her stand-up special, sparked widespread backlash for framing traditional marriage as inherently oppressive to women.
I think marriage is legalized slavery,” Jones told Ziwerekoru Fumudoh, who is better known as simply ‘Ziwe,’“a man — especially if he is expecting you to be a tradwife — might as well pull out a whip. And a chain.”
Interjecting, ‘Ziwe,’ asked, “There are young people watching who might be wanting to get married, what would you say to them?” Ziwe asked, to which Jones replied with only one word: “Don’t.” Still not done, she complained, “My daddy didn’t raise me like that.”
“To be anybody’s wife,” the 58-year-old comedian clarified. “My dad used to literally say that to me: ‘I didn’t raise you to be somebody’s wife,'” the so-called comedian said, “I don’t know if it’s brave or smart. Most of the people that I know that’s gotten married are divorced now. I think marriage is legalized slavery.”
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She espoused the same opinions in a 2014 stand-up special, which stated, “I do not want to be a slave. I don’t like working for all you white people now and you pay me. But back in the slave days, my love life would have been better.”
“Master would have hooked me up with the best brotha on the plantation and every nine months I’d be in the corner popping out super babies. I’d just keep popping them out. Shaq. Kobe, LeBron, Kimbo Slice, Sinbad,” she joked.
Concluding her profanity-laced set, Jones asserted, “I would be the number one slave draft pick. All of the plantations would want me. Now, I can’t get a brotha to take me out for a cheap dinner. Can a b*tch get a beef bowl?!!”
In an R-rated appearance on The Daily Show last year, she supplied another insane political rant. Speaking about Trump supporters, she stated that the problem with “these Trump folks” isn’t that they’re “corrupt,” “evil,” or “women-hating, racist, unqualified dickheads who couldn’t run a Dunkin’ Donuts without burning it down” but that they are “goofy-ass motherf**kers.”
“I thought Reagan was bad, but at least he knew how to talk. I thought Bush was bad, but at least he has a hilarious name. But what do we have now? JD Vance, RFK Jr. and Elon Musk. I cannot believe America is going to be ended by these f**king loser i*cels. That’s not how I plan to go out,” she whined.
Talking to Trump voters, Jones raved, “But seriously, this is to the people who voted this shit in. This cannot be what you mean by ‘Making America Great Again.’ This is a f**king circus. Other countries are laughing at us right now. We’ve got to get rid of MAGA because they’re not making America great again. They’re making America goofy *sses.”
Featured image credit: screengrab from the embedded video