Celebrity Cash: Family feud

Dealing with family issues can be complicated enough, but add money and national publicity about your family feud, and things can get downright ugly and, ultimately, just sad.

I really feel sorry for “30 Rock” funnyman Tracy Morgan and his mother, Alicia Warden. The mother and son clearly have some issues they haven’t worked through. And now Warden has gone public with her disappointment that her famous and reportedly rich son (he supposedly is worth $18 million) won’t help save her home from foreclosure. In an interview with the Vindicator, a daily newspaper serving Youngstown, Ohio, where Morgan’s mother lives, Warden said her monthly mortgage payment is $463, and she owes about $25,000 on the house.

“I called Tracy last March or April to ask him if he would help pay my mortgage,” Warden said in the interview with Guy D’Astolfo. “I never gave him an amount — I just sent him the [billing statement], and he said he would do it. But he never did.”

Morgan responded to his mother’s plight and accusations that he won’t help by releasing a statement that said, in part: “I am saddened that these untrue stories about me have people questioning my commitment to my family. For reasons that are between us, I have not seen my mother in 11 years.”

Morgan reportedly offered his mother, who lost her job last year, $2,000 to help with her debts.

Morgan’s sister, Asia Morgan, has weighed in on the situation, criticizing her brother for not helping their mother and paying off the $25,000 left on the mortgage.

As the New York Daily News reported, Asia Morgan said: ““My mom’s house isn’t extravagant, but it’s her home, Her health is failing. She has diabetes, and her legs are giving out on her. This would be a drop in the bucket for Tracy. She has a son that can do, and she’s done everything that she possibly could for her family.”

Of course there are many opinions about this story posted on various comments sections of in papers or and online sites.

“Tracy Morgan should be ashamed of himself,” one person wrote on The Vindicator’s site.

One E! online reader asked: “Why do the relatives of famous people feel that they are entitled to the money of their famous family member?”

And another said, “The bible says honor thy father and mother it doesn’t say pay their bills!”

Maybe Morgan could throw the first white flag to mend his relationship with his mother by paying off her mortgage if he can afford it.

But here’s my take: We have no idea what happened or is happening in that family. We have no idea how deep the hurt goes for either of them. There are a lot of adult children with financial means who have decided they won’t bail out a family member for good reasons and bad.

So let me ask you to weigh in on that issue and not whether Morgan is right or wrong. This week’s Color of Money Question: Have you been in a situation similar to what’s going down with Morgan and his mother, and if so, what happened? Send your responses to colorofmoney@washpost.com. Be sure to include your full name, city and state. Put “Celebrity Cash: Family Feud” in the subject line.