DomiNque Perry Of 'Insecure' Talks Motherhood and Responds To The Internet Calling Her A Homewrecker
"I didn’t want people to think that I was just out here thottin’ and just trying to get with him and her and everybody else."
LOS ANGELES, CA – OCTOBER 06: Actress Dominique Perry attends the premiere of HBO’s “Insecure” at Nate Holden Performing Arts Center on October 6, 2016 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Allen Berezovsky/Getty Images)
Last April, DomiNque Perry, who appeared as Tasha in Season 1 and 2 of Insecure, shocked the Instagram timeline when she debuted a gorgeous maternity photo and revealed her growing bump.
The news of her pregnancy came as a shock with many speculating about her relationship with the child’s father after she posted a cryptic Instagram caption.
When the actress gave birth to her baby girl, Zen, in May, and her fellow Insecure co-star, Sarunas J. Jackson posted a picture similar to hers on his on social media timeline, fans put two and two together and deduced that he is the father of her baby. Which, quickly became complicated when Jackson’s girlfriend at the time went public saying she had no idea he was going to be a dad.
Now, for the first time, Perry is speaking out in a Madame Noire exclusive, about becoming a mother, her co-parenting relationship with Jackson and those commenters who accused her of being a “homewrecker.”
“It’s definitely made me want to be a better me,” she said in the interview. “I feel like in order to take care of her, I have to take care of me first. It just makes me want to be the best person I am like physically and emotionally for her, you know? So it’s changed me in every way honestly, for the better. I haven’t really had any bad thing yet, but I know it’s only two months in [laughs]. Right now, it’s been a joy.”
During her pregnancy, the actress said she wasn’t intentionally throwing shade at her child’s paternity but rather protecting her space and energy for the sake of her happiness and health.
“First of all, I wasn’t like saying who the father was and things of that nature because of personal reasons. But I literally was like, it’s me and her. I mean, of course, he was going to be involved. [Sarunas] is great and his family is great, but I meant just as far as a mother and daughter relationship, I was like, hey, me and her. So I was just focusing on that. And then when the blogs started coming out about who the father was and things like that, I was like, “Okay.” I just was like, hey, it’s whatever. All that came out was who the father was. And the other young lady came out and I was like, that’s his business. I had nothing to do with that, so my focus was literally on Zen and I didn’t respond to anything.”
She continued, “I don’t know, a lot of us we soak in the negative over the positive. So I knew that if I would have been seeing so much negativity about me –and people were coming on my page calling me a “homewrecker” and this and that and the other and they don’t even know the situation. I was just like, okay. It didn’t define me. So I was just like, whatever. I just tuned everything out. Like literally just focused on me and getting my emotional state better, because that’s important. Even before the baby, I never listened to the negative comments and stuff like that about me. I just was like, okay. Because everybody’s entitled to their opinion.”
Starring as Tasha on season one and two of the hit HBO series, the actress acted alongside one of its stars, Jay Ellis–who she was involved in a sticky situationship onscreen. In an interview, she jokingly shared that she got caught trying to “shoot her shot” with the actor but it wasn’t a serious attempt.
“I definitely was not trying to really get with Jay. I was trying to make it as a funny story when I did that interview. I knew people were really going to take that as, “Oh! She tried to really shoot a shot with him and then here comes Sarunas,” and I was like, that wasn’t the case at all. I really was not trying to get with him. I’m not trying to get into what actually happened with her father and I, but I know that it was never a situation of me trying to get with both of them at all. Like, I was doing my own thing and her father came at me, you know what I’m saying? And then we just were friends and things escalated and then here goes Zen. But I never was trying to get with Jay. I’m going to clear that up [laughs]! I was never trying to intentionally get with Jay, even though Jay is a gorgeous man. I didn’t want people to think that I was just out here thottin’ and just trying to get with him and her and everybody else.”
We guess that clears everything up!
