*Back in the day, Stephanie Mills opened up to Ebony magazine about her marriage to Shalamar’s Jeffrey Daniel, who she married in 1980 and divorced three years later.
Her chat with Ebony took place after she and Jeffrey called it quits, and in the interview, she details some of her biggest regrets from their relationship, most notably the fact that she never had a child with him.
Below are excerpts from the interview via ILOSM.
“I didn’t have a baby for my husband. God knows I tried, but it’s something that just never happened. He wanted a son, and I’d still like to have it for him,” Mills told the publication.
When asked if having a baby for Daniel would have saved their marriage, Mills replied: “Probably, I think it might help.”
OTHER NEWS YOU MIGHT HAVE MISSED: Comedy Central’s ‘South Side’ on Comedy, Cooning and Joking Close to the Edge
Mills then addressed how she and Daniel’s marriage fit into the celeb’ marriage stereotype:
“I suppose that suggests that ‘show business marriages’ don’t have very good chances of surviving,” Stephanie says. “Both partners are so much in the public eye all the time and when you add that to all the other problems that come up in a ‘normal’ marriage, the picture’s not very bright. Maybe Jeffrey and I will have to do like some other couples- divorce, give ourselves a little time and space, then marry again. Maybe in-between, we’ll learn all the lessons a couple has to learn in order to make a marriage survive,” Mills stated at the time of their separation.
The 4’9″ songstress also confessed her insecurities over her height, and how Jeffrey helped her to overcome it.
“Some people might find this hard to believe, but my marriage to Jeffrey Daniel was the greatest thing that could’ve happened to me. See, I’ve gone through some real changes at various times of my life, but because of Jeffrey, I’m now very happy with myself. All my life I tried to be the best I could be and I tried to look the best I could look. I always knew there are no perfect people in the world, but I had some problems about being a short person, and I suppose every girl wonders if she’s as attractive as someone else. As an entertainer, I know society has a thing about beauty. People are into that tall-pretty-girl-with-long-hair thing, you know. … I used to feel intimidated when I was around those gorgeous ladies, but I don’t feel that way anymore.”
She added, “He never stopped telling me that he loved me the way I was. He never tried to change me, and he told me I didn’t have to always wear high-heel shoes, for example. He told me, ‘Stephanie, if I’d wanted a tall woman I’d have married one. So don’t wear high heels for me. I love you in sneakers, barefooted, any way you want to be.’ He meant that and it went a long way in helping me change what I’d thought of myself at times. Now I think I’m tall as anyone else, I think I look good as anyone else.”
She also admitted that her split from Jeffrey took a painful toll on her:
“When Jeffrey and I first separated, I thought my whole world had collapsed. I didn’t think I was going to make it…. Here I was in this big house and I’d never really been alone. But let me tell you something. One day I got up and went to the mirror and looked at myself and said, ‘Now look here, Stephanie Mills, you’re out here in California, you’re alone now, and YOU…ARE…GOING…TO…MAKE IT.”
We Publish News 24/7. Don’t Miss A Story. Click HERE to SUBSCRIBE to Our Newsletter Now!
