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Mary J Blige

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Drugs, abusive relationships and self-hatred have all left their scars on the world’s most influential R&B star and the amazingly candid Mary J. Blige opened it all up to Self Magazine in an interview.

With the release of What’s the 411, Blige was almost immediately celebrated as the girl from Yonkers who could hold her own in style and substance next to the titans of hip-hop. Naturally, she was crowned the Queen of Hip-Hop Soul. Next came her heartbreaking 1994 album, My Life, which she recorded while battling depression, substance abuse, and an abusive relationship.

Read excerpts from her interview below:

On her situation with drug abuse she says;

“We numb ourselves with drugs and alcohol and people and shopping and shit, to cover up what’s really going on inside,” she says. “You’re taking drugs so you can go out and feel courageous, or go out and feel beautiful or whatever. You’re doing it to cover up something. I’ve seen visions of what I would look like if I kept doing drugs”.

On how she handles negativity, she says

 If a negative thought comes to mind, like you’re not this and you’re not that, cause those thoughts are always lingering. You’re not, you’re not, you’re not. I’m like, you’re a liar, I am what I am, you can’t tell me what I am.
I’m a child of God, if he’s amazing then I’m amazing.

On self love, she says

The thing I love about my body now is that I can hear it speak to me. You know, after you go through so much
in your life you can hear your body say, okay enough partying or enough doing this, enough doing that.

My body image and self esteem is at a pretty good place. I’ve grown to be comfortable with what I have, and what I have is all I’m gonna get, is me. .You know, my long legs, my waist,w hatever it is I have it and use the things.

Watch the interview below:

 

Photo Credit: @selfmagazine

 

 

Credit: Bella Naija

BET is set to honor Mary J. Blige with its 2019 Lifetime Achievement award at its awards show later this month. 

The BET Awards announced on Wednesday it would recognize the nine-time Grammy award-winning music icon for being “a figure of inspiration, transformation and empowerment, making her one of the defining voices of the contemporary music era.”

“And in the ensuing years, the singer-songwriter has attracted an intensely loyal fan base, responsible for propelling worldwide sales of more than 50 million albums,” the BET statement continued. 

Last year, Blige became a double Oscar nominee when she was nominated for two Academy Awards, supporting actress and original song, for 2017 film “Mudbound.”

Blige, affectionately referred to as the Queen of hip-hop soul, called the double nomination ‘really special’ in an interview with the Associated Press last year.

The veteran artist has also scored three Golden Globe and two SAG award nominations. Her debut album, “What’s the 411?” released in 1992 to critical acclaim, with timeless hits like “Real Love.” View image on Twitter

View image on Twitter

BET@BET

It’s a family affair!! @maryjblige is our 2019 Lifetime Achievement Award Honoree!! You don’t want to miss the celebration at the #BETAwards SUN JUN 23 8/7c!1415:26 PM – Jun 12, 201957 people are talking about thisTwitter Ads info and privacy

The 2019 BET Awards show will air live from the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles, across seven Viacom networks, on June 23 at 8 p.m.

Credit: Huff Post

As Mary J. Blige‘s marriage to Kendu Isaacs collapsed, she was also tackling the role of a lifetime. The singer was tapped to play Florence Jackson in Dee Rees’ film adaption of the novel Mudbound, which was immediately met with Oscar buzz when it premiered at Sundance Film Festival in January.

However, her personal life was falling apart during filming.
“I used a lot of my own heaviness from my own misery that I was living in that horrible marriage,” Blige told Variety. “I was just dying in it. I knew something was wrong. I just couldn’t prove it. I just had all the heaviness of not feeling right, not feeling good. I gave it to Florence.”
In July 2016, Blige cited irreconcilable differences as grounds for divorce and has asked to terminate the court’s ability to award spousal support to Isaacs.

According to court documents obtained by PEOPLE in May, Blige claimed Isaacs spent more than $420,000 during their marriage on “travel charges” that involved a woman he was having an affair with, not her.

Blige also claimed that Isaacs drives a Mercedes that she pre-paid the lease on and that he refused to turn over possession of her “Grammy and other achievement awards.”
The singer said she has long been the only bread-winner in the family and she is burdened with all of the debts, which she claimed total more than $10,000,000.

While the couple have no children together, Blige has been a stepmother to Isaacs’ three kids – Briana, Jordan and Nas – from a former relationship since they wed in 2003.

“I’m doing OK,” the signer told the magazine. “I’m living. I’m not happy about a lot of things. I thought someone loved me, right? Turns out, he was a con artist and he didn’t, and now he’s coming after me for all my money. When you come out of something like that, you realize you were never the one. There was someone else that was his queen. I got played. I got suckered. I have to keep smiling and keep my spirits up because this is designed to kill me.”

Blige, 46, said the most difficult part of acting came in the scenes where she was intimate with her on-screen husband, actor Rob Morgan.
“I was married. I never touched another man other than my husband,” she said. “I was petrified. ‘Oh God. I don’t want to do it.’”
After a chat with Rees, Blige decided to fully give herself over.
“You know what, Mary?” she told herself. “This is the job. This is acting. You’ve got to commit.”
Blige also stripped down to the made-under version of herself needed to play the role.
“I had to surrender and commit completely to Florence, like the little ugly boots she was wearing every day and those dresses,” she said. “We couldn’t wear makeup. We couldn’t have nails. We couldn’t do eyelashes. I was stripped down to the bare necessities of Mary. And that really helped me because people were saying things like, ‘Gosh — you’re so beautiful.’ It helped my self-esteem.”

Source : http://people.com/music/mary-j-blige-temporary-spousal-support/