The Newly Hitched Multihyphenate Is Handing Out Laughs and Luggage

“The first thing I thought was, I have to make sure my cuckoo doesn’t come out,” says Tiffany Haddish. “Those bathing suits were itty bitty and I just was thinking, My booty is going to eat this up. I wanted to keep it classy.”

It is the exact kind of answer one expects from Hollywood’s most hilariously unfiltered star when asked to describe how she felt on the set of her first SI Swimsuit shoot. But if you spend a little more time talking to Haddish, you’ll quickly realize that alongside that bravado is a deeply thoughtful soul determined to experience everything that life has to offer. And that is exactly why appearing in SI Swimsuit was so important to her. “The little girl in me is in awe,” she says, tearing up at the thought. “This is a brand that means something, so it is a huge accomplishment to be asked to be a part of it.”

Haddish’s rags-to-riches journey is the kind that movies are made of. Born in Los Angeles, the actor was raised by her mother, who dealt with severe mental health issues. That ultimately led to Haddish and her siblings being placed in foster care. It was as tough as you’d think, but when Haddish was a teenager, a social worker gave her an opportunity to attend a comedy camp. That experience not only honed Haddish’s comedic chops, but it also gave her permission to dream big. From there, Haddish began building a name for herself in the world of stand-up comedy before landing small roles in TV and movies. Then came her 2017’s Girls Trip. The movie, led by an all-Black female cast, was a juggernaut that raked in over $100 million dollars—and Haddish was undoubtedly the breakout star.

Tiffany Haddish was photographed by James Macari in Loreto, Baja California Sur, Mexico | James Macari/Sports Illustrated

Ever since that pivotal career moment, she has worked nonstop, releasing a memoir, starring in movie after movie and touring the country with her stand-up. On top of all this, Haddish has been hard at work at the She Ready Foundation, an organization she founded that aims to inspire, protect and provide resources to children in foster care. One particularly meaningful thing the organization does is provide foster kids with suitcases. “When I was in foster care and was getting moved around a lot, all of my things were in trash bags—it made me feel like garbage,” she says. “I’ll never forget the day I got a suitcase because it changed how I felt about myself. At that moment, I promised myself that if I ever got any kind of power, I’d make sure no kid felt like garbage.”

As hard as she works professionally, Haddish dedicates just as much time to bettering herself. “I believe we are all astronauts,” she says. “Our job on this planet is to collect information, experiences and emotions—to learn things and report back to God.”

To prove just how dedicated she is to this concept of self-growth, Haddish married herself—which included reciting vows and kissing herself in the mirror —while shooting her Peacock docuseries, Tiffany Haddish Goes Off, which aired late last year. In typical Haddish fashion, it sounds funny, but there was actually something much deeper behind the stunt. “The longest relationship you’re ever going to have in your entire human existence will be the one with yourself,” she says. “How you treat yourself is really important because it signals to the world how they can treat you.”

To nourish that relationship, Haddish says she does regular check-ins. “The things that made me happy last year don’t necessarily make me happy this year,” she says. “If you want to keep growing you have to constantly be asking, What makes me happy now? I want to keep growing, keep evolving, so I’ll keep doing that work.”