Mary J. Blige May Be Fresh off a Divorce From Kendu Isaacs but She Was Once in a Relationship With This R&B Bad Boy
Fans mourned with Mary J. Blige while she went through a painful and contentious divorce. After years of heartache, Blige seemed to have found her forever love in her husband, Kendu Isaacs. Turns out, he cared more about spending his wife’s money on his alleged mistress and first-class vacations than being a good husband. Luckily, Blige bounced back after their split, stronger and hotter than ever.
Though her divorce from Isaac tried to break her, it wasn’t her first failure in the love department. The singer and actress was once crazy in love with R&B singer, K-Ci Hailey.
Mary J. Blige’s marriage to Kendu Isaacs
Before their divorce, Blige credited Isaacs with being a knight and shining armor. Prior to their relationship, the singer had experienced much personal turmoil and used drugs and alcohol to numb her pain. Isaacs demanded she quit using substances at the threat of ending their relationship.
They married in 2003 and Isaacs took charge of his wife’s career as her manager. She released multiple hit albums and won her first Grammy Award under his management but that didn’t equate to a lasting marriage. She filed for divorce from in July 2016 after allegedly discovering that he had been unfaithful with her protégée.
The divorce was nasty. She alleged that she was the sole breadwinner throughout their marriage and that her husband spent hundreds of thousands of dollars without her knowledge or consent – some of which Blige said went to his mistress. Isaacs initially sought $130,000 a month in spousal support and she was ordered to pay him $30,000 monthly in temporary support. The divorce was finalized two years later with the terms of their divorce kept confidential.
She told SELF magazine following their divorce that Isaacs didn’t deserve the credit she gave him. “When I look back, I see that we all want what we want. And we want it to be the way we want it to be,” she said. “I wanted a savior. I’d been hurting so long, and so much, and so bad.” She says that though he helped ah the time, it was her will power that got her through.
Mary J. Blige’s relationship with K-Ci Hailey
Isaacs wasn’t the first tumultuous relationship for Blige. The singer was once in love with K-Ci Hailey of the R&B Group Jodeci and their love was magnetic from the start – in both a good and bad way.
Both singers, the relationship could have been musical heaven, and included a beautiful duet they recorded. Instead, it was toxic and involved cheating, drugs, explosive fights, and constant breakups. K-Ci opened up to The Breakfast Club about their relationship in 2015.
“We had fun man. We was young. It just exploded,” he admitted. “I’m not gon’ lie, I did some things. She couldn’t take that heat.”
Their relationship was full of passion, sometimes too much. In the same interview, K-Ci recalled an incident where Blige interrupted their show to confront a fan he called on stage.
”I remember one night in London she came up on stage and snatched the mic from my hand,” he recalled. “She told this girl in the front row, ‘B-tch, don’t you ever touch my man again.’ I couldn’t take that no more. She used to break up our [hotel] parties.”
According to K-Ci, they were together for 12 years and he even gave her what she thought was an engagement ring. Their relationship ended after K-Ci publicly denied that they were involved, leaving Blige to finally walk away. Blige married Isaacs just a few years later.
Though Blige is currently single, she isn’t rushing to get back into a relationship. She’s focusing on her singing and acting career while restoring her faith in herself that she says she almost lost following her divorce.
