Mary J Blige has been through a lot because of her ex-husband Martin “Kendu” Isaacs. She’s kept her struggles a secret for years.
But now, she’s finally opening up about it all. You guys are never going to believe what she went through in the name of love.
Mary and her ex-husband Kendu, whose birth name is Martin, got married in 2003. Just like every other married couple, they thought that they were going to be together forever.
But by the time 2016 rolled around, it became clear to Mary that they were not going to last. Because of this, Mary filed for a divorce and announced that she and Kendu were going their separate ways because of irreconcilable differences between them.
Everybody believed her because she gave us no reason not to. But it turned out that she wasn’t being honest with herself or the rest of us.
With time, everyone got to find out the real reason behind Mary and Kendu’s divorce. The reason was so much worse than them having a difference of opinions.
According to Mary, what had started as a sweet and loving marriage became an extremely toxic relationship. She also revealed that Kendu had been cheating on her for a really long time. This wasn’t even the worst thing that happened to her.
Mary Was Forced to Pay Kendu Spousal Support
When she filed for a divorce from Kendu, she thought that she would finally be free of him and his ways. And maybe, just maybe, she would finally be able to move on and heal from everything. But that wasn’t the case.
Because after everything was said and done, she was forced to pay Kendu spousal support. This came as a major shock to her because she took steps to prevent this at the start of her marriage when she and Kendu signed a prenup that waived any form of spousal support.
Mary’s situation only got worse for her when she was ordered to pay Kendu $30,000 every month to maintain his lifestyle after their divorce was finalized in 2018. After this, Mary’s life only went downhill.
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According to her, she started struggling financially just so she could keep up with paying Kendu $30,000 every month. Sometimes, she’d be behind on her rent because of him. She even revealed that she was millions of dollars in debt thanks to this, too.
Those first couple of years after her divorce from him had been finalized were some of the worst ones of her life. According to Mary, she was forced to return to work immediately after her divorce was finalized.
Why? She couldn’t afford to not work because she wouldn’t have the money to pay spousal support. Most importantly, she wouldn’t have any money for herself.
Mary Learned a Lot from That Period of Her Life
Luckily, over the years, she’d built an amazing portfolio for herself. So she was able to book a lot of jobs and gigs.
We’re talking movies, TV shows, singing, paid partnerships, and more. She did all of this just so she could make enough cash.
In her words, the moment her divorce was settled and she was hit with the alimony, she couldn’t believe something like this could happen to her. But she didn’t exactly have the time to sit and think about it.
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She had to get to work, and she had to get to work fast. So that was exactly what she did.
Even though this was one of the worst periods of Mary’s life, there were tons of lessons she learned from it. According to her, this made her realize how important it was not to put her life in someone else’s hands.
More importantly, it taught her not to trust someone else with her finances. Now, she’s all over her business and her finances. Feeling helpless is something she never wants to experience in her life ever again.
Mary Had a Really Rough Childhood
She’s experienced a lot of horrible things in her life, starting from her childhood. Mary grew up in poverty. She lived in a pretty rough neighborhood.
Her childhood was anything but rosy. In her words, she grew up in a very angry environment, where her aunts were always mad, hateful, jealous, and full of pride.
Even her relationship with her mom wasn’t the best. According to her, she felt that her mom was really bitter about her musical talents because she had also wanted to be a singer, but that didn’t work out well for her.
Then there was her absentee dad, too. According to her, one day, her father just got up and left their family.
He never looked back. Mary didn’t get the chance to meet him or properly get to know him until many years later after his musical dreams had failed, too.
Even though Mary has built a successful career for herself, it didn’t come without its fair share of struggles. When she released her debut album What’s the 411, she was still living in the same neighborhood she had grown up in.
Even though this album gave her some traction and made her popular enough for people to want to pay to see her and listen to her, not everyone shared the same sentiments. According to her, the people in her neighborhood wanted to end her life because of the success he had gotten.
When Things Got Hard, Mary Turned to God
In her words, she was in hell during the first few months of her career. The only way she knew how to bounce back from this was to pour all her depression into her music.
For her, it was almost like she had to sing for her life. So that was exactly what she did.
But still, her life didn’t become as perfect as she had hoped for it to be. She started feeling depressed again and turned to substances to keep herself going.
When she tried her best to put a stop to her substance addiction, she just replaced it with drinking. According to her, her wake-up call finally came after the passing of Whitney Houston.
But unlike most people, who would get themselves in a rehab center to cope with their addiction, Mary did something completely different. She turned to God. In her words, she decided to pray and seek God, and it worked.
She was able to get past the worst of her addiction. But she still has the occasional drink with her friends.
Moving on to relationships, Mary’s relationship with Kendu wasn’t the only bad relationship she had. Once upon a time, she and Cedric Renard Hailey, aka K-Ci, dated for 12 years. But then, they had to end their relationship because it turned disrespectful and harmful.
Despite everything Mary has been through, she’s still found love again. Not too long ago, she revealed that she’s in love. Although she didn’t reveal much about her new love interest, she made it clear that she’s happy.
Which is honestly good to hear. After all, she’s been through so much.
