Mary J. Blige opened up to Angie Martinez in an extremely honest new interview. The iconic singer addressed her very public divorce from her husband of 13 years. Since filing for divorce from her husband/manager, Blige's personal life has been on display for public consumption. It's been a difficult time for Blige, especially after her divorce turned into a legal battle over spousal support. Blige confirmed the rumors that her ex is seeking over $100,000 in monthly spousal support for clothes, personal trainers, and money for his kids from a different relationship. Blige is fighting her ex because she doesn't believe he deserves what he's demanding. "You didn't make me. You're not God, so I have to pay you for being my husband?" Not if she can help it. "I was Mary J. Blige before I even met you."
Blige spoke about the reasons her marriage came to an end, as well. After being together for 16 years, Blige credits "overwhelming disrespect" and infidelity as the reasons she decided to divorce. Blige said she feels empowered for walking away from her marriage, but it was still one of the hardest things she had to do. "Unfortunately, he was my everything and you can't make a person your everything" the R&B singer explained. "You're giving them too much power. You're giving them God's power." Blige believes she gave him too much over the years, because when she loves somebody she loves them hard. She told Angie, though, that she won't give that much ever again. Blige also doesn't see herself remarrying in the future.
Despite the struggles of her personal life, though, Blige says she's in the best shape of her life and is still a hopeful person. She's been hard at work throughout this ordeal. She went on tour in the middle of the divorce because her music is her therapy. The love from her fans, as well, has been helping her heal. Blige also got to work on her upcoming album "Strength of a Woman," which is about her trying to keep her marriage together. "The whole thing was based on fighting for my marriage," she said. "But my marriage wasn't fighting for me." In addition to being an emotionally honest album, it will also feature some amazing collaborations from greats like Kanye West, Missy Elliott, DJ Khaled, and Quavo.
Blige has definitely been busy. Not only has she been working on her music, she took time to star in the upcoming film Mudbound. The film is about two families, one black and one white, living on the same land in the rural Mississippi Delta in the 1940s. The film got rave reviews at the Sundance Film Festival, especially for Blige's performance. Variety said Blige gave a "transformative performance that will elevate the acting career of the R&B star." Blige spoke to Angie about how she was able to get in to character for this role, revealing she went completely bare with no absolutely no make up. She even took off her eye lashes. Once her busy schedule clears up, Blige revealed she hopes to work on a memoir, as well.
Angie even got MJB to talk about that Hillary Clinton interview that went insanely viral during the election. While Blige was able to laugh at the viral clip, she said she was attempting to humanize Clinton in that interview. She said she wanted "people to see her as a woman and not a politician. At the end of the day, she is a woman. She deserves to be treated like one." Blige said she was able to survive becoming a meme, so if you can survive that you can survive anything.
"Strength of a Woman" will drop on April 28th.