Chris Redd Walks Back His Wildest Claim About His 'SNL' Struggles

Earlier this month, stand-up comedian and Saturday Night Live alumnus Chris Redd posted a tearful video to Instagram in which he detailed his personal struggles during and shortly after his SNL tenure. Now, Redd is recanting his claim that he was pushing illicit substances at 30 Rockefeller Plaza, presumably to calm down Pete Davidson’s mentions.

In his six-minute confessional, which the comedian captioned, “What have you sacrificed for love?”, Redd recalled the mental health and substance abuse crises he suffered at SNL, while addressing – and confirming – many of the rumors about the erosion of his relationship with SNL ironman Kenan Thompson. 

Redd admitted that, while struggling with his addiction to prescription drugs, he fell in love with Thompson’s ex-wife Christina Evangeline, and he even seemed to imply that the violent assault he suffered in October, 2022 may have been retribution for the relationship.

Redd further said of his drug problem at SNL, “I was even selling some to the people, to some of my cast mates.” 

However, this past Thursday, Redd told TMZ that this last claim was more of a joke than a confession, claiming that he "wasn’t Walter White-ing" at SNL. Which, objectively, is correct – Walter White would never have ratted himself out on Instagram. 

"I was being facetious about the drug-dealing thing," Redd told the TMZ cameraman during the impromptu conversation on the streets of New York City. "I wasn’t drug dealing to my castmates. I wasn’t dropping off a pack. I wasn’t Walter White-ing. I was trying, I was wondering things... trying to make light of it, because I was feeling super vulnerable and raw at the time."

While Redd confirmed that he abused both Adderall and Xanax during his SNL tenure, he denied being a plug for any other cast members saying, “No, I was not selling … I had a full-time job as a comic.” Of course, drug dealing and performing comedy aren't exactly mutually exclusive activities, especially at SNL.

"The drug issue at SNL was there before I was there, and I had nothing to do with that," Redd said of the show's storied reputation for long nights and even longer lines. "I just kind of worded it the way I worded it. I didn’t think (anybody) was really going to take it serious, because I wasn't really in that way. And there are so many other things I was talking about."

Perhaps we took the “I sold pills at SNL” line more seriously than Redd had hoped because there's no mandatory minimum sentence for sleeping with your friend's ex-wife.