Queen Latifah, who is on the road promoting her hit show The Equalizer, told People about an encounter with the late Cicely Tyson who had to check her on live TV. 

Latifah explained that Tyson, who passed away in January, appeared on her talk show in 2014 alongside Blair Underwood and Vanessa Williams. But the interview went awry when the teleprompter showed Latifah a question she said she knew was poorly written. 

"Ms. Cicely Tyson pulled my coattail one time. I was doing my talk show and was happy and excited, but nervous. And I saw this question pop up on my prompter, and I knew that I wasn't supposed to read the question the way it was written before I even got it out. And it was something like, 'So do you guys, so-and-so?'"she explained. 

Tyson immediately stopped Latifah and said, "Wait a minute. I'm not 'you guys.'"

"Excuse me, Ms. Tyson, you are absolutely right. I apologize, my bad. I'm so sorry," Latifah responded. 

Latifah told People that she knew better but she said it anyway because she was nervous.

"I [wasn't] raised that way. I was raised better than that. So I knew before it was even out of my mouth, I knew. We all need that person that could help us get back to the humility in us, to doing the right things. Nobody's perfect, but I'm very fortunate to have real people around me who keep it a buck with me," she said. 

The Queen Latifah Show originally aired from 1999 until 2001, but was revived in 2013 and ran for two more seasons before Sony canceled it in 2014 due to low ratings.

On People's podcast, People Every Day, Latifah said it was a learning experience and that she was thankful Tyson checked her because she was wrong. 

"I appreciated that she did that because you are never too big to get checked. You know what I mean? And some people think they're too big to get checked. If you're wrong, you're wrong, and I was wrong," Latifah said.

"And she let me know that was inappropriate, and I appreciated her letting me know that because it just brought me back," Latifah added.