Ms. Pat's Husband Played a Pivotal Role in Getting Her Comedy Career Started

The entertainment industry loves an inspirational rise-to-fame story; Ms. Pat undoubtedly has plenty of them. The comedian has used stories of her tumultuous childhood, drug-dealing past, and complex familial relationships in sold-out comedy shows, two hit TV shows on BET Plus, The Ms. Pat Show and Ms. Pat Settles It. She is also flourishing behind the scenes as an executive producer on her shows and other projects.

Ms. Pat's life today is one she has often said wouldn't have been achieved without the support of her understanding husband. During her November 2024 appearance on Shannon Sharpe's show, Club Shay Shay, Ms. Pat shared how her husband's career kept them afloat in the early years by allowing her to max out his credit cards and enter the risky comedy game. Luckily, her hard work has paid off, and she was able to pay him back in a major way.

Here's what to know about Ms. Pat's husband and their family.

While she had been on the comedy scene since the early 2000s, Ms. Pat's career took off with The Ms. Pat Show. The sitcom is mainly based on her real life, as she plays an aspiring comedian with a husband, Terry (J. Bernard Calloway), who loves her and patiently watches her navigate her dreams. Since the series was picked up for Season 5 in November 2024, we don't know how it ends for Pat Carson. However, Ms. Pat and her hubby, Garrett Lee, are doing just fine.

Ms. Pat shared on Club Shay Shay that she and her husband met in the early '90s when she was 19 and he was 21. She said she initially wasn't attracted to him because of their different backgrounds. At the time, Ms. Pat said she had turned to selling drugs and forging checks, something that was foreign to her husband.

"He was just so cut dry honest and what women would consider now to be lame, because that's the word we used," she said. "And I'm like my husband lame as h--l you know he ain't breaking no laws he ain't got no speeding ticket he ain't doing nothing."

While Ms. Pat was the cool one in her relationship, she credited her husband for helping her figure out what she wanted to do with the rest of her life. In one part of her Club Shay Shay interview, she said Garrett convinced her to stop her criminal activities by offering to put an apartment in his name. She worked odd jobs when she agreed until her comedy career took off.

Ms. Pat and her husband's marriage was her saving grace in more ways than one. In addition to helping her grow her career, he stepped up and helped her raise her two older children, born in her early teens with a man in his 20s. On Club Shay Shay, she shared how she and her husband began dating when she had started raising her sister's four children due to her sister's crack cocaine addiction. The couple eventually had two more children, making them a family of eight.

Ms. Pat credited her husband for raising six other children who weren't biologically his, and said they continue to raise her sister's grandchildren. However, while the comedian takes care of business with her comedy shows and on TV, she shared she was able to retire her husband from his job at General Motors and has enjoyed seeing him do "white man stuff" like gardening. Ms. Pat also shared how much she appreciates her man by sending him a Father's Day tribute on Instagram.

"Happy Father’s Day to my lovely husband Garrett," she wrote in June 2024. "You have always been my ride-or-die. 31 years, and I still love you more than you ever know. Words can’t describe the husband, father, stepdaddy, uncle, and mentor you have been to our family."