‘The Real’: Jeannie Mai Wants to Make Her Marriage to Jeezy Work By Being Different Than Her Mother
The Real co-host Jeannie Mai is embarking on an exciting journey in her life. She will be getting married to rapper Jeezy, whom she got engaged to in March 2020.
Mai has been divorced before, and she seems to be thinking about ways to make her second marriage work. In fact, one thing Mai has discovered about her own relationship tendencies is that she should be different from her own mother.
Jeannie Mai and Jeezy started dating in 2019
In October 2017, Mai announced she was filing for divorce from her then-husband Freddy Harteis. The couple had been together for 10 years. Their divorce was finalized in December 2018.
In the fall of 2019, Mai revealed she had been dating rapper Jeezy. She told viewers and co-hosts on an episode of The Real, “He’s introspective; he’s passionate; he’s incredibly deep; he’s a visionary. He’s a great leader. He’s an amazing servant to his community… Getting to know J, you guys know him as Jeezy, has been one of the most beautiful experiences of my life.”
In March 2020, a source shared with People that Mai and Jeezy had gotten engaged. According to the insider, Jeezy honored Mai’s Vietnamese heritage by popping the question on a “date night in his home filled with Vietnamese food and décor.”
Jeannie Mai wants to be different than her mother when she gets married
Mai is in the process of planning her wedding. Though no date has been announced yet, she has also thought ahead to the marriage part of her relationship.
On a recent episode of The Real, Mai shared that she has looked at her parents’ marriage, which ended in a divorce, to figure out what she should do differently. Her plan this time around is to “submit” to her husband, which is something her mother did not do when married to her dad.
“I, Jeannie Mai, going in to my marriage, I want to submit to my man,” Mai said, before clarifying that she does not mean it in a “negative” way in that “you are less important, you are lower than that person that you’re submitting to.”
Rather, Mai simply wants her husband to “lead” their household. “I’m a very dominant woman,” she continued. “I own my business, I lead my teams, I played my own manager, my own publicist, my own lawyer when I didn’t have money to have those people. So, I make the decisions in my life. When I come home, I like the idea that my man leads us.”
Mai revealed that her mother–who is often known to fans as Mama Mai–was also a “stronger force” in the marriage to Mai’s dad, which “caused a wedge” between them. Mai realized she had learned to do the same thing in her own love life, which is why she is more “careful and aware” about this going forward.
Jeannie Mai’s comment about ‘submitting’ to Jeezy received a lot of backlash
Shortly after the clip of Mai on The Real was aired, she received a lot of backlash for her comment about “submitting” to Jeezy.
A few days later, Mai appeared on the Tamron Hall Show to clarify her message. She said, “Well for me, submit does not mean that you are lower or less important than your man. Of course, Jay and I respect each other very equally.”
Mai continued, “What I mean is in my work life, in my actual life, I own my businesses, I run my team, I make all of the decisions and I lead entirely in the outside of my life. So in my home, I want my man to lead. I want him to take in what I would like and what my wishes are, what my dreams are, and then incorporate it, making the overall decision that’s best for our vision together.”
