*Cheryl James, a.k.a. Salt of Salt-N-Pepa fame is speaking out ahead of their upcoming biopic for Lifetime about the subjects she did not want to cover in the movie.
During an interview with Entertainment Tonight, James noted that she didn’t want to address her relationship with her father, or her past with her ex-husband Gavin Wray, with whom she shares two children.
“They’ve been, in the past, delicate relationships. Nothing so much with myself or with Pep, because it’s our story,” she explained.
James and Wray divorced in 2019, and she dished about it to theJasmineBRAND, telling the outlet: “I’m newly divorced… for about a year. And I went through a really difficult divorce. It was hard… one of the darkest times of my life because it took so long. I was with my husband for… my daughter’s 27… so 28 years.”
James added, “It was me trying to fill someone else’s void. And I didn’t realize that I was doing that. Sometimes we make ourselves small to fit in someone’s box and accommodate them.A lot of times we do that with men. And when I was coming out, it was a long process of me coming out of the dark part of being divorced.”
She also noted that her faith helped her cope with that difficult time in life.
READ MORE:Lifetime Announces January Premiere Date for Salt-N-Pepa Biopic.
“A lot of it had to do with my faith. A lot of it had to do with being around my girlfriends who I know love and support me and them being available to talk. I talked to Pep a lot, I cried a lot,” she explained. “I didn’t try to rush through emotion and the death of my marriage. I really focused on healing and being consistent with whatever I had to do. I took a few classes, I did a little therapy. Whatever you have to do to get yourself out of it, you will one day eventually get past it.”
Lifetime’s biopic on Salt-N-Pepa is set to air on Jan. 23, 2021, with an after show interview special to follow.
As previously reported by TheWrap, the 3-hour miniseries follows the story of nursing students Cheryl “Salt” James and Sandra “Pepa” Denton as they fall into the world of rap and hip hop, after recording for a friend’s school project.
Salt-N-Pepa became the first female rap act to go platinum and earn multiple Grammy wins while paving the way for female rappers.
The miniseries will feature some of their greatest hits and will be executive produced by Cheryl James, Sandra Denton and Jesse Collins. Queen Latifah and Shakim Compere will also executive produce from Flavor Unit, the report states.
Pepa has said that she was as hands on as possible.
“As much as I could be involved, I was involved. When we got approached to do a movie on Salt-N-Pepa, our legacy, I was like, ‘Yes, it’s the time! Oh boy, we got some stuff to tell you.’ I’ve been wanting to do it for years.”
She continued: “My first reaction was, of course, ‘Yes, let’s do it.’ Salt-N-Pepa has so much story. We pioneered the story that we have that has never really been told. We knew what kind of story it was. We only talked about it in interviews, never really got to see it visually, and the timing was right, so I was like, ‘Yes.’”
