When Angela Simmons announced she was engaged to Sutton Tennyson in April 2016, the news came as a bit of a surprise to her fans. She later confirmed what many were already speculating, that she was expecting her first child and happy about growing her family.
Simmons announced that she and Tennyson called off their engagement before the start of the New Year and shared on Instagram that what she went through in 2017 made her “stronger.”
The reality star has adjusted to motherhood and life with her son, Sutton Joseph, 1, well, but at times, she says she still struggles with the fact that she’s raising her little one all alone.
“I just got to a place where I felt like I wasn’t happy, and I tried, and I tried, and I tried and I wanted it to work because the last thing I wanted to do was not be together with the person I had my child with,” she admitted in a confessional for the season 4 premiere of WEtv’s Growing Up Hip-Hop. “God had another plan for me.”
The 30-year-old talked candidly to her own mom, Valerie Simmons, about single motherhood, walking away from a relationship when it was no longer beneficial to her heart, and the scrutiny that she came under after sharing her journey on social media.
“I feel like I’ve done everything I could with the relationship. Obviously, we went to counseling and I really could never imagine in a million years number one, having a kid with someone out of wedlock. Then the whole relationship just crumbled,” she admitted.
Publicly sharing her engagement and pregnancy news opened Simmons up to a different side of social media and it came with its fair share of hiccups for the star.
“For me, it’s already a lot, then everyone has to look at me like, ‘oh you’re not married, you’re this, you’re Reverend’s daughter.’ So I’m going through all of that and I have to raise a kid in front of the world…single! People are always going to be in my comments, ‘where’s the dad? what’s this?’ It’s non-stop! They’re always worried about my ring and if it’s on or off. [People] think they know me and they don’t. They have no idea.”
Now that the dust has settled, post-breakup, the Simmons said her focus will remain on her son–never on anyone else’s thoughts.
“Of course, I heard a lot of chatter about me having a child out of wedlock…I’m human and it happened,” she said. “People are always going to have an opinion and that’s just not who I am. I’m not your opinion.”