Despite being paid 83 cents for every dollar men earn 40% of families, there’s been an increase of women paying spousal support to men. Mary J. Blige can attest to this and recently shared her impassioned thoughts on the topic.
“It’s wack,” the legendary singer, actress and entrepreneur shared during a discussion at her Strength Of A Woman event in May.
In a sit down with Rashad Bilal and Troy Millings of Earn Your Leisure for a live, she opened up her financial issues that stemmed from her contentious divorce from her ex-husband Kendu Isaacs.
“I will never allow someone to have that much power over my life or my finances, or my life ever again,” she said to an applauding crowd.
In 2018, Blige was order to pay Isaacs $30,000 per month in spousal support despite his being accused of infidelity during the marriage.
The hefty payments reportedly led to financial hardship for Blige.
“I owed so much money I never thought I’d ever get out of debt,” the icon said. “I’m out of debt now,” added Blige. “Now I have the wisdom, now I look at my payroll… that’s not my money. My taxes are not my money, so I’m like, ‘Pay my payroll, pay my taxes, pay my tithes.’ All of that money, I don’t even wanna see it because it doesn’t belong to me.”
Blige shared her stance on women paying money to their ex-husbands as well.
“It’s so wack right ow that men can come at you and get alimony. When I was getting a divorce, I was like, ‘you mean to tell me I gotta pay him?! And he cheated and he lied.”
“Get a prenup,” Blige said in a more recent interview shared by Black Millionaires. “Because I didn’t have one, and that’s why I ended up having to just give everything away.”