Adrienne Bailon was part of a girl group with Naturi Naughton and Kiely Williams at the start of her career. They called themselves the 3 Little Women, which was shortened to 3LW.
The girls were in their mid-teens when the group was formed in 1999. Everything seemed to be going great for them.
But then, it all came crashing down. You’re not going to believe what happened and why.
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Back in 1999, Adrienne, Kiely, and Naturi formed one of the fastest-rising girl groups ever. Not long after they got together, they put out hits like “No More” and “Playas Gon’ Play.”
With how fast they were rising, everyone was expecting them to keep coming out with more and more big hits. But that was not what happened. In fact, if anything, it was the opposite.
Out of nowhere, the original 3LW got divided. Or should I say – Naturi got kicked out?
It did not look good for the group. According to what Naturi has been saying, there was some serious drama between her and the 3LW management.
Michelle Williams Was Allegedly the Cause of the Drama
It only went downhill from there, when the rift started to involve Adrienne and Kiely. To make things worse, 3LW’s manager at the time was Kiely’s mom, Michelle Williams. Of course, when it came down to picking sides, Kiely sided with her mom, and Adrienne sided with Kiely.
This left Naturi all on her own. According to her, the real reason why all that drama was happening in the group was mainly because of Michelle.
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Apparently, Naturi had much darker skin than Adrienne and Kiely. Because of how Michelle wanted the group to look, Naturi was not really a perfect fit. Despite all of that, Naturi wanted to fight for her place in the group.
I mean, 3LW was on the edge of hitting mainstream success. They had just gone on the TRL tour with Destiny’s Child. I don’t think I need to explain how huge this must have been for them.
Right as they were about to make a name for themselves, Kiely’s mom wanted Naturi out of the group. Naturi managed to hold on to her place in 3LW for a little while.
But then all this a breaking point when Naturi got into an argument with Michelle. It got heated fast, and then Adrienne and Kiely got involved in the argument, too. Just like you would expect, they were not on Naturi’s side.
Things apparently got really ugly. At one point, Adrienne and Kiely supposedly started cursing at Naturi. As if that wasn’t bad enough, they also started throwing the food they had at Naturi.
Naturi Was Replaced by Jessica Benson
At this point, Naturi had had enough and was ready to quit the group. According to her, she felt like she was getting physically violated when the food started leaving the plates and flying toward her. That was her cue to leave.
Since she was leaving, Naturi asked for a plane ticket to go back home to New Jersey. Now, at this point, Michelle was basically getting what she wanted.
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But according to Naturi, it still wasn’t enough. Michelle allegedly refused to get her a plane ticket to go back home.
What’s even crazier is that after Naturi decided to leave the group, 3LW didn’t rebrand and change their name. Despite how much their name relied on having 3 women singing, Adrienne and Kiely tried doing it on their own.
Then the media started making fun of them by calling them 2LW. Apparently, Naturi was a key part of what made the group work. Without her there, it just kept going downhill for them.
At one point, 3LW was almost let go by their label and was going bankrupt to make things work. Then Michelle decided to get another third “little woman.”
Naturi’s replacement turned out to be Jessica Benson, but Jessica was no Naturi. Nothing major happened for the group after she joined.
Without Naturi, the Group Eventually Disbanded
Recently, Adrienne talked about her time in 3LW and her current relationships with the other members. Adrienne shared in an interview with People that it was important to talk about the good times she had with the group. But she also added that she wanted to remember the bad times, too, so that they could make them right.
According to Adrienne, they were only teenagers when they first formed 3LW. Even though it didn’t end well, they were grown enough now to try and fix things.
Adrienne even pointed out how they still managed to have outstanding careers after going their separate ways. Adrienne and Kiely eventually joined another girl group that was formed for the Disney Channel movie The Cheetah Girls. They made this jump after 3LW failed to gain traction after Jessica joined.
When Adrienne and Kiely left to join The Cheetah Girls, 3LW was disbanded. Adrienne and Kiely had a lot of success with The Cheetah Girls.
They starred in the movies and worked on studio albums. At the end of 2008, The Cheetah Girls disbanded to pursue their solo careers in music and dancing.
Naturi, on the other hand, went into the movie industry a few years after leaving 3LW. She starred in the movie Fame and even wrote some of the songs on the soundtrack for the movie. Naturi was also in the biopic Notorious.
Naturi and Adrienne Have Made Ammends
Her most notable role came later when she played Tasha St Patrick in Power. In fact, Power was what brought Naturi and Adrienne back together.
When Naturi was doing the promo for Power in 2017, she made an appearance on The Real. Adrienne was a co-host of the show.
So, when the women met on air, Adrienne made a very public apology to Naturi. She apologized for her part in making Naturi leave the 3LW.
Adrienne said that she never meant any harm to Naturi at the time. She always thought of Naturi as talented and beautiful.
After Adrienne apologized on air, it looked like things were starting to head in the right direction for 3LW again. At one point, they were even asked if they would ever get back together to release some more music.
Kiely Accused Naturi of Lying
Back then, Naturi talked about how she would love to drop some more music, but she had a pretty busy schedule at the time. But then, in 2020, she spoke about some new music that she was working on.
Apparently, the music would show how she felt when she was being pressured out of the group. So no one was expecting the other members of 3LW to be on those songs with Naturi.
Apart from their busy schedules, there might also be another reason why 3LW might not make music together again. While Adrienne and Naturi seem to have kissed and made up, Kiely has not been on board with any of that.
She actually accused Naturi of lying. According to Kiely, Naturi lied about what happened all those years ago and has continued to spread those lies against Kiely and her mother.
Kiely is nowhere near ready to shake hands and make up with Naturi anytime soon. Naturi, on the other hand, isn’t about to take back what she has been saying all this time.
So both women have yet to bury the hatchet. But Adrienne and Naturi remain close despite what’s been going on with Kiely.
