Power turned Omari Hardwick into a star with a high net worth after he spent several seasons playing the iconic drug kingpin Ghost. During his rise to superstardom, Hardwick became friends with other A-listers like Beyoncé and Jay-Z. But the actor famously caused uproar among Beyoncé’s fanbase after he smooched the singer in front of the world.

Omari Hardwick cleared the air on kissing Beyoncé

Hardwick faced considerable backlash during his encounter with Beyoncé at the 2019 NAACP Image Awards. Beyoncé was at the ceremony to pick up her award for Entertainer of the Year. She was accompanied by her husband Jay-Z, who also took home the President’s Award that year. Hardwick, who was a good friend of the two, went over to greet Beyoncé with a kiss on the cheek. But the controversy started when Hardwick kissed Beyoncé a second time. Many felt the “Crazy In Love” singer looked uncomfortable during the exchange and took to social media to lash out at Hardwick.

“@OmariHardwick 2nd kiss was unnecessary & uncomfortable. Don’t do that again,” a fan posted on social media according to Us Weekly. “We women so often get touched, kissed, groped & poked in instances exactly like this (at an event, at work, etc). WE DON’T LIKE IT. It’s time to no longer let these moments of discomfort slide.”

Even some fans who felt the controversy was blown out of proportion believed that Beyoncé looked out of her comfort zone with Hardwick.

“The video of Omari Hardwick and Beyonce is definitely awkward as hell, but I think that’s it,” they posted. “An awkward interaction. I don’t get what this extra stuff is all about.”

However, Hardwick went into a little more detail about what really happened when he kissed her. After hugging Beyoncé the first time, Hardwick pulled away from the singer just when she asked him a question.

“I was leaning back in to listen more to what she was asking,” he once said in a video posted by Kerwyn Phillip. “And in doing that, obviously…”

Hardwick asserted that all of the uproar that followed was simply due to a mistake, claiming he accidentally leaned into the Grammy-winner further than he meant to. It also seemed unlikely that Hardwick would’ve made a move on Beyoncé so openly since he’s been married to Jennifer Pfautch since 2012.

Omari Hardwick felt his kiss with Beyoncé only sparked controversy because he was a celebrity

In a 2019 interview with Hot 97, Hardwick added more context to his and Beyoncé kiss while defending his friendship with the singer. He theorized that the only reason the kiss received so much attention was due to his celebrity status. According to Hardwick, Jay-Z would’ve had more of a problem with Hardwick if he didn’t engage with his wife. So much so he quipped that Jay-Z would’ve slapped him.

“’Go give her a hug,’” Hardwick imagined Jay-Z telling him. “That’s a woman that reached out to me at one in the morning, said I’m doing a surprise birthday for Jay, you gotta be there. That’s a friend.”

Additionally, Hardwick felt if a lesser-known man kissed Beyoncé, it wouldn’t have caused nearly the same amount of backlash.

“So, now that Omari is more of a celebrity than from the moment I met Ebro, it’s not just that it was with Beyoncé. It’s that Omari is bigger,” he said.

Hardwick also resented the idea that he was being vilified for showing love to his friend.

“What’s ironic is in a moment of chivalry, y’all realize I got hated for loving somebody?” he said.

Beyoncé and Jay-Z have already been through their fair share of controversy. The Brooklyn emcee infamously jeopardized his marriage when he had an affair, which inspired Beyoncé’s uncomfortable Lemonade album. But judging from her and Jay-Z’s silence on the matter, it seems Hardwick might’ve been right to see their kiss as a non-issue.