Jeannie Mai wants to make sure people understand what she meant when she said she wants to ‘submit’ to her fiancé Jeezy in their marriage.
via Complex:
In Thursday’s episode of the Tamron Hall Show, The Real co-host further explained her controversial comments. “Well for me, submit does not mean that you are lower or less important than your man. Of course, [Jeezy] and I respect each other very equally,” she said. “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,” Mai continued. “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.”
Mai seems unperturbed after her remarks garnered a mixed response on social media. “Girl, I am 41, I don’t care what kind of pushback I get from other women out there,” said Mai. “This is my life and you know coming out of divorce and also making a major decision to marry again after being blessed to fall in love and finding such a beautiful person, I want to be very clear and open about how our life can be so that we make sure that our vision is aligned and that we both are empathetic to each other and know that this is the structure we’re going into. I think the biggest mistake that you can make is not communicating what you want and not setting it up for a win.”
Mai initially discussed her decision to be submissive in her marriage on Tuesday’s episode of The Real, saying, “So, I’m gonna say right here, that I, Jeannie Mai, going in to my marriage—I want to submit to my man,” she said. “When I hear this definition…submitting has a negative connotation. It means that you are less important, you are lower than that person that you’re submitting to. It usually can be like, you know, referenced as somebody who works lower than you and that’s not what I’m referring to here.”
Mai also mentioned that she made her choice based on the fact that her mother made most of the decisions in her household, which caused friction with Mai’s father. Mai noticed that she has similar tendencies as her mother and didn’t want that for her own marriage.
Mai and Jeezy announced their engagement in April. Mai divorced Freddy Harteis in December 2018 after the pair had been married for 10 years.
