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Piers Morgan Live
Bernie Madoff's Future Daughter-in-Laws Speaks Out; 50 Cent Up Close
Aired October 31, 2011 - 21:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PIERS MORGAN, HOST: Tonight the most hated man in America, Bernie Madoff. He swindled unsuspecting investors out of a stunning $50 billion. Everybody knows what he did, but nobody knows Bernie Madoff quite like his family. And even they can't forgive him.
Tonight the woman who's marrying Madoff's son speaks out.
"I'm 50 Cent." That's right. That 50 Cent, businessman, author, humanitarian, and a bit of music as well. A story of success that can only happen in America.
Tonight, the bad boy rapper who is actually not so bad.
You have never taken drugs?
50 CENT, RAPPER, ENTREPRENEUR: No, it was the easy option, it was either you can take $10 or $5 and you can spend it on buying weed to smoke it or put it in your pocket.
MORGAN: And what Kim Kardashian's mother told me about her daughter's troubled marriage.
Apparently it's all over already, the marriage is over, it's on the rocks.
KRIS JENNER, REALITY TV STAR: Yes.
MORGAN: You're not wearing --
JENNER: Don't tell me that, no.
MORGAN: Wait until you hear what else she had to tell me.
This is PIERS MORGAN TONIGHT.
Bernie Madoff went to prison on July 14th, 2009 to begin serving 150 years for masterminding the biggest Ponzi scheme in history. Now more than two years later members of the Madoff family are finally speaking out.
And here with me now is Catherine Hooper, Andrew Madoff's fiancee, and Laurie Sandell, who's the author of the book, "Truth and Consequences: Life Inside the Madoff Family."
Thank you, both, for joining me.
I suppose my obvious first question, how you're reacting to all the reaction? How do you think that the interviews you've done so far and the published tell-all book is all going down?
LAURIE SANDELL, AUTHOR, "TRUTH AND CONSEQUENCES": Well, certainly, I expected the book to make quite a big splash. I mean, this is a story that people have been avidly following since it broke in 2008. And I think people have been waiting to hear from the family.
MORGAN: I mean, Catherine -- I mean, for you, it's obviously -- it's a difficult situation. I mean I'm aware that, for example, you're the only person who is going to be personally profiting from this book. Now there'd be many people saying, well, hang on a second, I mean, how can you be allowed to profit from such horrendous crimes? What do you say to that?
CATHERINE HOOPER, ANDREW MADOFF'S FIANCEE: Well, I understand that completely. The fact of the matter is, Andrew, because of his legal situation, and I, we can't get married. We likely never will be able to be married.
And I'm a single mother. I have a 6-year-old daughter who I support. And to take the time away from my career to work on this project and invest the hundreds of hours of work with Laurie that it took, I had to be compensated for that time in order to make that happen.
MORGAN: You see, what I found curious about Andrew's interviews is not that I didn't believe him, because I didn't know enough about what was really going on there, although obviously many people do doubt what he was saying, as I'm sure you're aware, and others have sympathy for him.
But in relation to the question that he didn't answer which was, you know, how much money do you guys actually have, because I guess the sympathy that you may get from the public as to making money from this book would depend on exactly how impoverished you are.
HOOPER: Well, Andrew's assets and mine are not the same, as you know. And Andrew's finances are a matter of public record. All of his financial life is written about in court documents that anyone can read. And he's being sued for a high multiple of his net worth. So our picture is very uncertain.
But money is not what was most important about this project for us. We worked on this book, and I undertook this book because I had a mission.
MORGAN: And what was the mission?
HOOPER: Well, the mission is to have the ability to tell our story in our own words, and to be able to broker a reconciliation between Andrew and his mother, and also to offer a story about our lives that hopefully tells many people that you can have a healing experience through telling your own story.
MORGAN: The reason I'm continuing to press on this is I found it odd that Andrew who -- you know, gave a very moving interview, but he wouldn't answer the question about how much money he's got. And even when I asked Catherine then, she wouldn't answer either.
You know, you can find it out in documents. But obviously you know the answer, you both know the answer to that question. Is it easier to say Andrew has, as some people say, $60 million, and then -- and then when people have that picture in their head of that sum of money, they can assess whether they believe it is ethically and morally right for you guys to profit -- or Catherine in particular, to personally profit further from telling the story of Bernie Madoff's crimes?
SANDELL: I don't feel that Catherine and Andrew have been hiding anything. I mean, as they both stated, you know, these numbers are widely available to the public. I can understand why the public would want to hear a number out of Andrew or Catherine's mouth, but you know, I mean, you could say your mother tells you never to -- you know, discuss these financial things and this is all out in the public. And it's no secret and Andrew has been, you know, incredibly open and cooperative since the beginning.
MORGAN: Well, I don't mean to be funny, but then how much is it? If it's so -- if it is not a secret and they're so open and public and everyone appears to know apart from me, why don't you just tell me?
SANDELL: I mean, this is -- I think --
HOOPER: To be honest, I actually don't know the answer. And I think anyone who's being sued for $60 million has a very uncertain financial future. Keep in mind that that figure is not the amount of money that Andrew is alleged to have. It's the entire amount of money that he's alleged to have earned over his entire lifetime.
MORGAN: I get that --
(CROSSTALK)
MORGAN: But Catherine, do you know how much, for example, of that money came from the dodgy side of Bernie Madoff's business? In other words, how much money came from the Ponzi scheme to be invested or be used in Andrew's apparently legitimate end of the business?
HOOPER: Well, the money that Andrew earned in his career is what represents his net worth and that's what he's being sued for. I can't speak to the other pieces of the case because I'm not a legal expert. But I'm sorry I'm not able to give you a better informed answer about that.
MORGAN: I just think it would be easy for you. Now I think -- there will be people who are absolutely fine with you doing the book and making money, and there will be lots of people, particularly, I would imagine, relatives of Bernie Madoff's victims who will be seething with anger and saying -- HOOPER: Right. But when you talk about -- when you talk about Bernie Madoff's victims, please keep in mind that you're talking about people that are close friends of mine, people that I spend holidays with, and many of the people who sent wonderful letters of love and support today as we were working on this project and at the fruition of the project.
So the victims are not a bunch of faceless people to us. They're the people that are closest to us. I've heard from many of them. And from the ones I don't know, I certainly understand their questions about that issue. I know because --
(CROSSTALK)
MORGAN: Let me ask you, Catherine. Did you -- did you believe what Ruth Madoff was saying in her interview?
HOOPER: Which piece of it?
MORGAN: Well, the general thrust of it? I mean, do you find her a credible witness? Because I'm not sure that I did.
HOOPER: I find her very credible. She has been so despised by the public, and at the end of the day, she's a 70-year-old woman who has lost her son. She found out very late in life that the only man she ever loved had been lying to her for decades. It's crushing what she's been through. And I have nothing but empathy for her.
I can certainly understand for someone who's never met her or maybe only seen her on television for a few minutes might not understand what she's been through, but I have incredible empathy for her.
MORGAN: Well, see, I think -- what the public feel is this is the biggest Ponzi scheme in history. Bernie Madoff simply couldn't have carried this off on his own. And of course Andrew and his brother Mark, who so tragically took his own life, were working in the same building just a floor away from their father for all these years but apparently knew nothing about it, nor did his wife who had been with him 50 years.
Nobody appears to have known anything about this. He was running this multibillion-dollar scam.
SANDELL: Well, Piers, this is something that I very carefully went through in the book. I mean, I did not come into this thinking that Andrew was not involved in his father's scheme. Like everyone else, I thought any day he's going to be taken away in handcuffs. That was how I came into this project.
And it was after dozens of hours of interviews that it became very clear to me that he had no knowledge of his father's crimes. And there were a number of factors that, you know, led into that that made it very clear and one of them, for example, is just simply the fact that, you know, many of the people that are either in jail or awaiting trial who were accomplices in Bernie's scheme would have had every reason, you know, to turn in one of the brothers or Ruth, and get a reduction in their own sentence.
They didn't do so because they weren't able to.
MORGAN: Catherine, I mean, just reading the book, Bernie Madoff emerges as a pretty revolting character even before the balloon goes up on his scam. I mean the way that he treats you, the way he talks to you. There's enough in there for me to think horrible piece of work.
HOOPER: Yes. And I can tell you that when you fall in love with someone, you take your in-laws. All of us have in-laws. It was not going to be the easiest prospective father-in-law, but at that time he seemed merely creepy and not like a criminal.
MORGAN: Do you think that Andrew will ever speak to his father again? I know he said he won't. But do you believe that? Do you think he is resolute now that he will never talk to him again?
HOOPER: I cannot imagine that he would. He feels so betrayed and so devastated not only for himself but for his children who will have that name for the rest of their lives and have the questions that go along with it. So for Andrew, it's a matter of principle. He will not forgive his father and he'll never speak to him again.
MORGAN: Well, Catherine, thank you for the time. I wish you luck in the future. Obviously, more luck than you've unfortunately had to endure. My only advice would be, I'd rethink this money thing. I'd give the profits to a children's charity or something. And then I think you may get more sympathy. Maybe you and Laurie should think about that.
HOOPER: You're entitled to your opinion. Thank you very much, Piers.
MORGAN: Appreciate your time. Thank you.
Now I want to turn to the other big story in the news tonight, that's Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain who says he's been, quote, "falsely accused of sexually suggestive behavior towards at least two female employees of the National Restaurant Association, when he headed that group in the '90s. Mr. Cain also called the accusations a witch hunt.
Candidate Cain has also has some striking things to say about this show. I interviewed him about a week and a half ago in Las Vegas. And when his comments about abortion made headlines, Mr. Cain accused this show of taking his remarks out of context.
Well, that didn't happen. And to prove it, I want to replay what Herman Cain said in that interview about abortion.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MORGAN: What's your view of abortion?
HERMAN CAIN (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I believe that life begins at conception. And abortion under no circumstances. And here's why.
MORGAN: No circumstances?
CAIN: No circumstances.
MORGAN: Because many of your fellow candidates or certainly some of them.
CAIN: Yes. Yes.
MORGAN: Qualify that.
CAIN: They qualify, but --
MORGAN: Rape and incest, and so on.
CAIN: Rape and incest. But --
MORGAN: Are you honestly saying -- again, a tricky question, I know.
CAIN: That's a tricky question.
MORGAN: But you -- you've had children, grandchildren.
CAIN: Yes, yes.
MORGAN: If one of your female children, grandchildren was raped, you would honestly want her to bring up that baby as her own?
CAIN: You're mixing two things here, Piers.
MORGAN: Why?
CAIN: You're mixing two things here.
MORGAN: But that's what it comes down to.
CAIN: It comes down to it's not the government's role or anybody else's role to make that decision. Secondly, if you look at the statistical incidence, you're not talking about that big a number. So what I'm saying is it ultimately gets down to a choice that that family or that mother has to make, not me as president, not some politician, not a bureaucrat.
It gets down to that family. And whatever they decide they decide. I shouldn't try to tell them how -- what decision to make.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MORGAN: So there you have it. Herman Cain in his own words, pro-life and pro-choice.
And, Mr. Cain, you're welcome to come back on this show any time to address this rather confusing issue or any other issue for that matter. Just don't say that we have edited you unfairly when we haven't.
Later on the show, what Kris Jenner says about her daughter Kim Kardashian's troubled marriage.
And when we come back, from the mean streets to rap superstardom. This surprisingly squeaky clean 50 Cent.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
MORGAN: 50 cent, how are you?
50 CENT: I'm great.
MORGAN: I would have thought by now with all this economic recession, you may have changed your name to a quarter or something.
50 CENT: Going down, going down.
(LAUGHTER)
MORGAN: Well, with all the money you're making these days, maybe up to a dollar?
50 CENT: I'm doing pretty good. You know I'm comfortable. So now I focus more on trying to create ventures and projects where I'm actually giving back.
MORGAN: Well, let's see, you're fascinating. I interviewed you before for "GQ" magazine. And I've never been surprised by somebody. You know you had a reputation that went before you.
50 CENT: Right.
MORGAN: Of this rough, tough, bad boy rapper that would was going to potentially kill me at any moment of the interview. And actually you're very different and you were a very serious minded businessman.
50 CENT: Right.
MORGAN: And you've developed into lots of different strands. People know the incredible story of the vitamin water.
50 CENT: Right.
MORGAN: Vitamins, as you like to call it, where you made, you know, a lot of money from that kind of deal and you had from other deals. You've become a very successful American businessman.
Is that something that, given your background, given where you came from, how do you feel about this? You're very proud of what you've achieved?
50 CENT: Absolutely. It's a huge accomplishment. And it allows me to be influential to my peers and to other young entrepreneurs. And when I take on the projects like the Escape Project, you know, particularly this project has a charitable component connected to it where it's one for one. With every piece of product that's sold through Street King Energy, there's a meal being provided through the United Nations World Food program.
MORGAN: It's a really good one. I'm going to come to that a bit later as I am -- several other things that you're doing. Because you're a man of many talents now.
50 CENT: Yes.
MORGAN: Take me back, though, to where it all started for you. Because I think the core of what you're about, what drives and motivates you I think goes back to your upbringing.
50 CENT: Absolutely.
MORGAN: Tell me where you were brought up.
50 CENT: I was brought up in South Jamaica, Queens. Yes, my mom, she passed when I was 8 years old. She was killed. And was forced to live with my grandparents at that point.
MORGAN: Because your father had disappeared.
50 CENT: Right. And --
(CROSSTALK)
MORGAN: You never knew him.
50 CENT: I never knew my father my life so --
MORGAN: Do you have any desire to?
50 CENT: Not now. I believe he could help me not make the mistakes I made early on, by just being there to provide basic guidance. I feel like my son now is a better version of me.
MORGAN: I mean has your father ever tried to contact you?
50 CENT: No.
MORGAN: Now that you're famous?
50 CENT: No. And I'm grateful for that.
MORGAN: Are you curious about what kind of man he was?
50 CENT: Well, it wasn't a whole lot of positive things around in the environment. So I'm not sure who my mom could have interacted with that would have been more influential in a positive way for me at that point. And now I look at it like being an adult, that the mistakes that I made like -- I'm around my son and he does things and he feels like he's doing it for the first time. And I don't know if it's genetics or -- MORGAN: I mean he's lucky you're -- I'll come to him as well later in the sense that, you know, he's not having to grow up in the environment you did.
50 CENT: Right. To say you had it tough is to put it mildly. I mean you were left without a parent at 8 years old. At 12 you were dealing drugs on the streets.
50 CENT: Right.
MORGAN: Because that was the only way to survive. And yet the interesting thing again about you, which I found surprising -- I don't want to insult you by saying that, but I remember asking you how many drugs have you taken?
50 CENT: Right. And I don't actually use drugs.
MORGAN: You have never taken drugs?
50 CENT: No, it was an easy option. It was either you can take $10 or $5 that you spent on buying weed to smoke it or put it in your pocket. My motivation at that point, it wasn't like I was making the decision to do it with the comfort of having things just around me at excess. There weren't things around like there was --
MORGAN: For most people of your peer group at the time would have been taking drugs.
(CROSSTALK)
MORGAN: So it showed a self-discipline which is odd in a boy of that age.
50 CENT: And I got a chance to see a lot of -- my grandmother was -- my mother was one of nine. So I got a chance to watch a lot of my mother's sisters and brothers at different periods like experiment with the usage of drugs and alcohol. You know and --
MORGAN: Did you ever touch alcohol?
50 CENT: I still responded so differently from it that I stayed away from it like I had --
MORGAN: You've never taken drugs, you've never had alcohol.
50 CENT: I've drunk before but not like --
MORGAN: But not much.
50 CENT: Yes. And I --
MORGAN: You don't anymore?
50 CENT: I've had the experience that made me like paranoid because of it. And I stayed away from it following that.
MORGAN: Smoke?
50 CENT: No.
MORGAN: I mean, you're one of the squeakiest cleanest men I've ever met.
50 CENT: But my first record when I put it out, I said I (INAUDIBLE) all the time, I smoked that gush, and I said it because I knew that the rest of my story and experience would speak to that. That people would identify with it and say, oh, well, yes, I guess he would have tried that, too. Because everyone around me had tried it.
You know and I know myself a little enough to know that I'm an extremist on some levels. Because I feel like if I get high, I'll get really high. And I may not come back down.
MORGAN: I mean many of your competitors have done all that stuff and carry on doing all that stuff.
50 CENT: In the actual music video they're going to show you the bottles, they're going to show you the party, the nightlife. You know when music is played, it's usually a comfortable place for alcohol to be consumed, the bar, the sports bar, the nightclub, it's an easy marriage, it makes sense because of the nightclub environment but --
MORGAN: As a young man, when you were trying to get out of this world that you were in.
50 CENT: Right.
MORGAN: What was your dream then? What was the holy grail for you or the end of all this?
50 CENT: Even when I was standing on the corner I was standing there with an entrepreneur spirit. I was just standing there because there was no opportunities or options for me in that early stage. Like I was 12. So there was no blue card for working papers. There were no -- there was no temporary -- if I was going to mow someone's lawn and you can do that once maybe every two weeks, then, you know, the income off of that wouldn't be enough to make a change.
And what you actually wanted -- what I wanted at that point -- and I had a lot of negative influences in front of me. I had people who were successful hustling. Today Cadillacs and Bonnevilles and all these different things, Regales right in front of me that seemed like it was -- like there were no requirements, to be a part of that actual lifestyle. So everyone that was physically available was eligible to be a part of it.
MORGAN: Did you not aspire to be one of them? What was the badge of honor, if you like, to have the Cadillac, to be that guy on the street?
50 CENT: Well, I mean, it symbolizes success to people with, you know, small minded thinking and limited exposure to information.
MORGAN: When you see young kids these days in America, if you go back to Queens or whatever and you see people like you were.
50 CENT: Right.
MORGAN: Hanging on the streets, maybe causing trouble, whatever, in a gang, whatever. What do you say to them? Because I always imagined that whatever you say to them carries --
50 CENT: It impacts harder.
MORGAN: -- immeasurably more weight than some middle class white politician pretending he knows what their lives are like.
50 CENT: Yes, and I don't pretend in conversation when I talk to them. I tell them that it's the right idea with the wrong direction. You know they do the same things over and over. To have the exact same behaviors and expect a different outcome is the definition of insanity.
MORGAN: Do you think -- I mean you now have in America the first black president.
50 CENT: Right.
MORGAN: Must have been a big moment for you as a black American. What did you feel that day when Barack Obama became president?
50 CENT: I think it was the same for everyone. It shows how far as a whole America has come. You know?
MORGAN: Do you believe it has? Or do you believe that everybody thought it had? I mean, quite a few people have said to me over this desk since that there's almost -- it feels like there's more racism now because of Barack Obama becoming president?
50 CENT: Well, yes, but I mean on some levels. Me, I was an advocate for Hillary, I was a supporter for Hillary, because I wasn't sure America was ready for an African-American president. I didn't know what was going to happen in the process because it could have been a mess to have something happen to him in the process.
MORGAN: Because you feared that --
(CROSSTALK)
50 CENT: Yes.
MORGAN: How do you think he's doing?
50 CENT: I mean, I think that he inherited America in a terrible state. So it's pretty tough to get things right back in the order. Like you got people out protesting today that are in parks around the world.
MORGAN: Can you -- can you still relate to that even though in a way you've become a corporation? 50 CENT: Yes, but I can relate to it that's why I've created the Connection Philanthropy connection to a street gang. So you can provide something to the lower. See, I think this actual business model is the answer to a lot of the problems that we're looking at.
MORGAN: Do they have it in them to care? I mean when you meet this Wall Street --
(CROSSTALK)
50 CENT: They're not conditioned to.
MORGAN: They don't show any sign of it.
50 CENT: Right. Well, you got a lot of people in those positions that they're in, most business engagements are fueled by greed, I believe. You know so you got to be careful, you got to pay attention. That's why when I go into negotiations in different deals, I absolutely have to be involved myself or I'm not sure.
Even with the attorneys on your side, you still got to see to know exactly what's going on. If I don't understand it, I say explain it to me. And if I don't, then I say explain it slow or use different words so I understand what's going on.
(LAUGHTER)
MORGAN: Let's take a little break. And when we come back, I just want you to give one of the great teases of all time.
50 CENT: All right.
MORGAN: To a second segment, which is, I want to know what it was like the day you were shot nine times at point blank range. OK? Just because I can't imagine ever asking that of anybody else I'll ever going to interview. You're the one.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
MORGAN: That, of course, is "In the Club" your breakout hit. I mean --
50 CENT: Right.
MORGAN: No one is going to believe me when I say this, but I work out to that song.
50 CENT: Yes.
MORGAN: Literally it's on my iPod. It's the top of my gym collection. It never fails to get me going. It's one of the great workout songs ever.
50 CENT: That's amazing. The problem with that kind of song, Piers, is you got to create something that's equivalent to it.
MORGAN: That's the pressure, isn't it?
50 CENT: Yes.
MORGAN: Because it was an iconic dance song. Wasn't it? I mean, everybody went crazy for it. The video is spectacular. It propelled you into superstardom. Then what do you do?
50 CENT: Then every day, it's someone's birthday, so it's relevant all over again. That's the old reliable. I can't move the crowd, put it on. It's going to work.
MORGAN: It always does, right?.
50 CENT: It always does.
MORGAN: Did you know when you made that track it was going to be so big?
50 CENT: You know what? The first thing I said when I said "go shorty, it's your birthday" -- and I couldn't even play it a full time before Eminem stopped it. He said, play that again. He played -- he said, this is it right here.
MORGAN: He knew.
50 CENT: Very first time he heard the song. He stopped it. Had to put it back. He said, this is the song right here. Then we sat in a meeting. I was me, him, Jimmy Iovine, Dr. Dre, Paul Rosenberg, Chris Lighty, all of us there together. And he -- they were -- we were debating over going with "In The Club" or a song called "If I Can't" -- "If I Can't Do It, It Can't Be Done." on Get Rich or Die Trying.
It wasn't saying anything. I tapped him. He said, no, I think we should go with this one. Then it happened. At that point, he was so influential in that actual meeting, coming off of the Marshall Mathers LP -- he sold over 22 million records on that album.
MORGAN: Unbelievable. Unbelievable.
50 CENT: My number, that's two albums together. He did that on one disk.
MORGAN: That's incredible, isn't it? You had an extraordinary moment in 2000 in your life when you were shot nine times at point blank range. I want to take you back to then to find out why it happened and also what you learned from it.
50 CENT: That experience for me was -- it definitely was a life changing experience for me -- for my son, actually, it's the biggest thing that changed my motivation. And he led me in the direction towards music. In '97, full time, I started writing music. And when I actually experienced being shot, and then when you are hurt that bad --
MORGAN: Really? 50 CENT: Yeah, it hurts very bad. Your bones is broken, leg broken, both sides, hip fractures.
MORGAN: Oh, it does hurt. I thought you said it didn't hurt that much. It's just agonizing.
50 CENT: Shot in the face. I couldn't talk. I had wires in my mouth. So I'm talking like this. But during that actual experience, I didn't really get hurt that bad. Either your fear consumes you or you become a bit insensitive in different ways. And it came out in the material.
MORGAN: Why were you shot? Why would somebody hate you enough to want to kill you?
50 CENT: I mean, in the environment that I come from, it's not much different from corporate America. It's just the CEO in the neighborhood doesn't take killing you out of the scenario of gaining your market share.
MORGAN: Simple as that, it's business. Were you a violent guy then? Were you very violent?
50 CENT: Aggressive enough to get by in the environment and have --
MORGAN: For someone like me who's never been in that world --
50 CENT: Yeah.
MORGAN: What does that mean?
50 CENT: Oh, it's extremely violent to you. It would be extremely violent.
MORGAN: Tell me about it.
50 CENT: It's just in order to create a message for someone else who's active in the environment, that clearly indicates to them that you don't have a problem with going in that direction if they want to, you have to do everything to create clarity for them that you don't have a problem with it. And then they don't force you to go.
MORGAN: And that means being extremely violent?
50 CENT: Or aggressive enough for them to know that you don't have an issue with it.
MORGAN: You seem like such a nice guy. Every time I've met you --
50 CENT: Because I'm no longer --
MORGAN: -- smile, immaculate suit. Then I'm thinking how bad ass were you?
50 CENT: I'm not in the same environment, I'm not in the same circumstances.
MORGAN: But at your peak, when you were the top CEO of the streets --
50 CENT: Pretty bad, yeah. But I'm fortunate enough to not have to -- to have seriously hurt anyone, to have to live with that at this point.
MORGAN: I mean, you were very lucky to survive. You shouldn't really be here. Do you feel lucky to have come through that?
50 CENT: Absolutely. You know, when you have a doctor explain to you that if it wasn't right here, if it was just right here, you're gone, that creates clarity for you. It's inches away from your life.
MORGAN: And as a singer, you had -- you have still got some of the shrapnel --
50 CENT: In my tongue.
MORGAN: Does that affect your voice?
50 CENT: It does. I slur a little bit from time to time. But this is the new voice, the voice that works.
MORGAN: Really?
50 CENT: The one that I had before I actually got shot and went through that actual altercation was only strong enough to make people aware of me in the ten-block radius that I grew up in musically. And this voice is the one the world embraces.
MORGAN: Do you think you sing better with the shrapnel?
50 CENT: Absolutely.
MORGAN: Would you recommend it as a course of action?
50 CENT: No, I wouldn't actually recommend it.
MORGAN: Think I actually get myself shot to put a little gravel in the old voice.
50 CENT: No, no. And you already got a little bit with that accent. You got your own little sound going on.
MORGAN: What did it teach you, the whole experience? Because it clearly, as you say, clarified things.
50 CENT: Right.
MORGAN: This was a moment where you probably shouldn't have survived. But you did. How did you change your life afterwards?
50 CENT: It teaches you to be persistent. Because the record companies, they didn't answer the phone any more. You know, and I had to figure out how to generate interest for myself as an artist on my own.
MORGAN: There's also something I think very important to you, which has helped, and that's your son. When we come back after the break, I want to talk to you about him, because you turned out to be a much better dad than your dad.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
50 CENT: There's monster right there, Marquis. That's the guy I work for right there. Hey, look at the camera. Yeah. Really, my son is the reason why I started rapping. Gave myself a chance to try something different because he was coming, you know. I was going to jail like not every -- like every other summer.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MORGAN: A clip from the documentary "The New Breed". Tell me about your son because -- how old is he now?
50 CENT: He's 15.
MORGAN: Fifteen years old. Did you ever imagine you'd have a son of 15?
50 CENT: No, he's actually like five in that clip.
MORGAN: What kind of boy is he?
50 CENT: Oh, man, he's just a total better version of me. You know, he has some of the same mannerisms. He's competitive. He plays high school football. And when I actually play with him -- because I'm physically active, I run around and try to stay in shape and everything, so I go play with him. He swears he's going to actually beat me. Now he's actually better than me now.
MORGAN: What do you say to him about your life before he came along?
50 CENT: Well, he has an understanding of it, because his mom and I explained it to him, that the circumstances of how things were before that. He was there when I actually was shot in the house. He heard it, but he didn't know what was going on. So he saw the aftermath of it, like me in the hospital, you know?
MORGAN: Difficult for a boy. How old was he then?
50 CENT: Yeah, he was --
MORGAN: Six maybe?
50 CENT: Yeah, about six years old. He went through some personal issues. Like people don't understand why I didn't actually let go of the situation easy. But it affected him in a different way and that made me even angrier. Because after the process, when I healed, he still had issues. Like sometimes he used to actually -- it's almost like he's asleep, but he's crying at the same time.
And I got to sit and shake him till he wakes up, wakes up. Then that was like right after he would go through little things like that.
MORGAN: A very traumatic thing for him to go through. Has it mellowed you, do you think, being a father?
50 CENT: Yeah, definitely.
MORGAN: Are you just calmer, do you think?
50 CENT: Absolutely. He has completely been my motivation since like -- he motivated me to go in a different direction because I didn't feel like anyone would take care of him if I wasn't around to take care of him. I wanted the relationship that I didn't have with my father with him.
So he was like my priority early on. Like and -- now they live in a different area, but I see him. I get a chance to see him a lot and visit him.
MORGAN: You wrote this book "Playground" about bullying. Were you ever actually bullied yourself or not?
50 CENT: Well, I've seen it take place and then adapted to it before I was a victim of it and became part of the problem earlier. You know? And it's interesting to write it and have it come from someone who's been on that side of it, and be able to convey how I was dealing with my emotions the wrong way through the actual character in the actual book.
I use some scenarios from my adolescent stages and was able to write things that I felt was interesting enough to hold the kid that won't traditionally read a book about bullying because he's that kid that would actually do it. It's a different approach to trying to solve -- resolve the same issue.
MORGAN: Who have been your role models?
50 CENT: My role models -- early on, I looked up to the wrong people.
MORGAN: Like who?
50 CENT: They were like guys that had achieved what I viewed as financial freedom in the actual environment, but they got it through the wrong way.
MORGAN: So that would be the successful drug dealers with the Cadillacs, that kind of thing.
50 CENT: Exactly.
MORGAN: What about more famous role models? Did you have anyone that you looked at who had been hugely successful for the right reasons? Was there a role model that came along where you thought, that's where I want to go?
50 CENT: Not that I actually followed. You know? Like I had people right in front of me that -- there was nothing that indicated to me at that point that I couldn't actually be that guy that I looked at that had the nice things. So I went in that direction.
I had interests in different areas. Like I was a huge boxing fan. And like when the Olympics came and there was Pernell Whitaker and Michael Nunn and Michael Moorer and Meldrick Taylor and all and all, I followed their careers all the way through.
MORGAN: When you look at the way that American society is developing, do you feel that the government is tackling social issues in the country in the right way or not?
50 CENT: Well, it's a lot of different issues going at the same time. So it's pretty tough to say those specifics, the ones that would affect Mike Tyson or 50 Cent, I don't think there's much focus on that.
MORGAN: Should there be?
50 CENT: Everyone would think that it should be within the area that they're affected, you know. But there's so many different areas to actually -- to attack that -- it's interesting. Like, it's a choice. A lot of choices to make in that actual area, what they should do socially or how -- there wasn't a lot of recreational things for you to do either at that.
MORGAN: My big thing is people get bored. Young men get bored. And when they get board, they get restless. If they're in the wrong environment, they get violent and they get into drugs. You've got to give people an alternative.
50 CENT: They're actually after the things that we condition them for. When you have a male child, a young child, and a female child, a young child -- we offer a baby while she's a baby, a dollhouse, a cooking set. I think we're teaching her nurturing, subconsciously.
We offer a male child cars, trucks. If it's a Hess truck, we mean work at the gas station. If it's a fire truck, we mean be a fireman. If it's a police car, it means be a police officer.
We also offer a male child guns, cap gun, water gun, one that just makes sounds and light up when you squeeze it. These are toys that are manufactured for children. They manufacture that because they're subconsciously trying to teach that male child to be the financial support of the actual relationship, his family and the protector.
But you can misinterpret it, what those things are there for.
MORGAN: Of course you can.
50 CENT: With less guidance as a child, you can take that gun and have it mean I want to shoot somebody.
MORGAN: Take another break. I want to come back and talk to you about the United Nations and quite radical stuff you're doing with it. It might surprise people. I think it surprises people about you.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(NEWS BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
50 CENT: I went to Africa. And the devastation I witnessed changed me forever. I mean, to see people who don't know when they're going to see their next meal or if they're going to see their next meal, it's crazy. I want to feed a billion hungry people. I need your help to do that. This is our world. These are our streets. I need your energy. Let's do this.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MORGAN: This is what it's all about. You're working with the United Nations. You even met Archbishop Desmond Tutu, I think about this, right?
50 CENT: Right.
MORGAN: You credit these energy tricks. Tell me how this directly helps people.
50 CENT: The actual model is like Tom Schumacher (ph), where it's one for one. Every bottle of this actual energy drink that's sold, a meal is being provided through the World Food Program. And --
MORGAN: What do they sell for?
50 CENT: For three dollars.
MORGAN: So 1.50 of that directly goes to help.
50 CENT: Well, the actual price of a meal varies. It goes up and down. So whatever the price is at that point, it comes from each bottle sold of the energy drink.
MORGAN: That seems to me the sensible way to get rich powerful people to make a difference?
50 CENT: Exactly. And I also think that when you have an opportunity to do a project like Street King, and it comes from the right place, because you've actually seen it -- like I grew up in low income housing here in America. And then I experienced something in Africa that's far more extreme than that.
It makes everything that I said that made logical sense out of why I was involved with those activities not make any sense to me.
MORGAN: Right, because the kind of terrible hunger, poverty you thought you were in --
50 CENT: Right.
MORGAN: -- compared to what you saw when you went to Africa.
50 CENT: It doesn't make sense.
MORGAN: -- is wealth and prosperity.
50 CENT: It's unbelievable. It doesn't make sense. It's like the people that you would think are the worst batch of people that we have, our worst -- our hardened criminals, right? Those people know exactly when they're receiving their meal. They know when chow time is coming every day.
You have people that are born that have no control over what's going on at all. Young kids that -- according to the United Nations, 29,000 people die per day.
MORGAN: That's an amazing statistic, isn't it?
50 CENT: Yes. I'm like that's a lot. It's an unbelievable that much. World Trade was a huge tragedy, and it wasn't even a fraction of that many people that we lost in that actual situation.
MORGAN: So you're going to give me with my energy?
50 CENT: Right.
MORGAN: So I need one of these to go in the gym to listen to "In the Club."
50 CENT: Right.
MORGAN: Right, to do my workout. So I'm pretty well squared off. There's only one thing I need from you, because you are one of the kings of Twitter. To my great envy, you have how many followers now?
50 CENT: Almost six million.
MORGAN: Right, I'm at the 1.37 mark. And I need you to help me. All right? It's a two-way street this. I'm promoting all your stuff. What are you @50Cent.
50 CENT: Yeah.
MORGAN: I'm @PiersMorgan. You need to do a directive right now.
50 CENT: All right. Let's see where I put my phone. I'll do it right now.
MORGAN: I want to see a live Tweet ordering your followers to follow me. And you can add best interview I've ever done.
50 CENT: Should it be appropriate or inappropriate. MORGAN: It can be anything you like. As long as the general gist of it is that they have to follow me. Gone?
50 CENT: Gone.
MORGAN: Six million -- this is how it works, right? This is how I get a bit of the 50 power.
Fantastic. Fantastic, come back, would you? I find your views interesting. You're not like the average boring politician.
50 CENT: It's cool. I have to pop in every now and then.
MORGAN: No, just become a regular guest. Just come in whenever you feel strongly about something.
50 CENT: OK.
MORGAN: All right? You got a deal?
50 CENT: I can sit back there while we bring the boring politicians --
MORGAN: Yes. That's a great idea.
(CROSS TALK)
MORGAN: We'll have you sitting in the corner saying, you're talking rubbish.
50 CENT: Yeah, when they get too sophisticated with their terminology, I can say, wait, wait, can you say that in English?
MORGAN: I would like this. Why don't we do it?
50 CENT: I don't understand what you're saying.
MORGAN: I agree. You will come back?
50 CENT: I will come back.
MORGAN: Thanks, appreciate it. Good to see you, man.
50 CENT: Pleasure. My pleasure.
MORGAN: That's 50 Cent.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
MORGAN: Shocking celebrity news today -- or if you're a cynic, maybe not entirely shocking. After 72 days of wedded bliss, Kim Kardashian filed for divorce from husband Kris Humphries saying she had given it massive consideration. I spoke with Kim's mother, Kris Jenner, just before the news broke and asked her about the rumors they were floating in trouble in paradise.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MORGAN. Apparently it's all over already. The marriage is over. It's on the rocks?
KRIS JENNER KARDASHIAN, MOTHER OF KIM KARDASHIAN: Yeah, don't tell me that.
MORGAN: They've been unpacking suitcases left, right, center. It's all over.
KARDASHIAN: They've been in New York for the last couple months shooting "Kourtney and Kim Take New York." So they're coming home tomorrow.
MORGAN: Still happily marry?
KARDASHIAN: Yes, as far as I know. I mean, somebody better give me a call, because I have work to do. Yes, yes. They haven't enjoyed their company in -- for a long time. Kim and I went to Dubai last week. I was with her alone, but she seemed really happy.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MORGAN: It looks like the mother of the bride, as always, was the last to know. You can see the rest of my interview with Kris Jenner on Wednesday and hear what else she has to say about the Kardashian clan.
That's all for us tonight. "AC 360" starts now.
