*Mary J. Blige sat down with journalist Tamron Hall during a panel at the 2017 Essence Festival and opened up about her messy public divorce from husband Kendu Isaacs.
Speaking on her new album, aptly titled, “Strength of a Woman,” Blige explained the meaning behind this latest project and how her martial journey helped her find “real strength.”
“The journey that got us here is that every woman can relate to a woman out there fighting for her marriage,” she began. “When I first started writing this album I was fighting for my marriage. There were a lot of layers to me peeled back for this marriage. I really thought I did [find] the love of my life.”
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Mary filed for divorce from her husband of 12 years in July of 2016, and last month she was ordered to pay Isaacs $30,000 a month in temporary spousal support.
“How is it that somebody gets to cheat and destroy everybody’s life but I’ve got to pay for it? That ain’t fair! ” she told the audience of mostly women.
“I don’t know if people seen the last eight or five years of my life, but its been hell,” Blige said. “And its been ugly and its been public and its been nasty. So, in the midst of all that. And the stuff that people don’t even know about — fighting for my life, fighting for my marriage, fighting for my morals and everything — I discovered my strength. My strength, my real strength is discovered.”
Mary admits that prayer got her through the darkest moments.
“Being Mary J. Blige the celebrity is secondary and I’m a human being first and I suffer just like everyone else,” said the singer. “I believe that I wasn’t given this career or this job as a singer or this gift from God to sit down and say, ‘I’m going to suffer from the world in silence and die.’ And it’s therapeutic for me as well. So, you know, that’s why. It’s not just for me.”
Now that marriage and divorce have helped Blige achieve true strength, she noted during the panel what she would tell her younger self.
“I would tell my 15-year old self to love yourself because people are going to love who you are in the future. They are going to love you.”
Check out a clip from Mary and Tamron’s conversation above.
