Kevin Hart to Miss First Public Appearance Since Car Crash

In the midst of his recovery from three spinal fractures, Kevin Hart will have to skip his first public appearance since the Labor Day Weekend car crash. TMZ reports that Hart and wife Eniko are being honored Thursday night by the Los Angeles Mission for their work with the organization, but that the couple won’t be on hand to accept the award because Hart is still recovering from the crash.

Nick Cannon is hosting the L.A. Mission’s 9th Annual Legacy of Vision Gala and will reportedly accept the award on behalf of the Harts when it comes time to recognize them, sources told the outlet. Hart’s work with the L.A. Mission includes last Thanksgiving, when he served meals to the homeless on Skid Row and pledged a $50,000 donation with Eniko.

The couple reportedly only recently found out about the gala, with sources telling TMZ that it was the family chef who actually accepted the invitation. Hart reportedly “wishes he could be in attendance, but his body is not quite up to the task.”

Hart continues to undergo intensive outpatient therapy following his severe injury and subsequent surgery, and appears to be progressing slowly. Earlier this week, he was spotted for the first time in public since the crash; in a video published by TMZ, he was hanging out with rapper Jay-Z, head of Murder Inc. Irv Gotti, and LeBron James‘ business partner, Maverick Carter. The crew reportedly spent three hours together at Beverly Hills hotspot Avra.

Hart’s car crash at the beginning of September landed the comedian in the hospital for nearly two weeks, and then in a rehabilitation center after that. Shortly after the crash, he was scheduled to appear on the debut episode of The Kelly Clarkson Show, but was forced to cancel. In his place, Hart’s friend and Jumanji: The Next Level co-star Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson stepped in and offered an update on Hart’s condition, saying “everything is good.”

Wednesday, Johnson gave a shoutout to Hart while accepting his award from Fatherly for “Coolest Dad of 2019,” making a wisecrack about his friend for the first time since the crash.

“As a father to 3 girls and as a ‘big daddy’ to [Kevin Hart] topping this list is awesome,” Johnson wrote in part in his Instagram caption.

There was no response from Hart, who has been absent from social media since the crash, which also involved his wife’s personal trainer, Rebecca Broxterman, and her fiance, Jared Black.

Black was reportedly driving Hart’s 1970 Plymouth Barracuda, a powerful muscle car without the modern-day safety features of today’s large engine vehicles. Black reportedly lost control of the vehicle and went careening off the highway into a ditch below.

Both Black and Hart were hospitalized with serious injuries; Broxterman came out with only minor injuries.

Photo credit: Kevin Winter / Staff / Getty