Mary J. Blige Talks Tough Divorce: “I Suffer Like Everybody Else”

By now, we’ve all heard about Mary J. Blige’s tumultuous divorce from her estranged husband, Kendu Isaacs. What we didn’t know is how much the ordeal is taking on toll on the music superstar, but we now have an idea.

“I don’t know if people seen the last eight or five years of my life, but it’s been hell,” she stated on a panel during the 2017 Essence Festival in New Orleans. “And it’s been ugly, and it’s been public, and it’s been nasty. So, in the midst of all that. And the stuff that people don’t even know about — fighting for my life, fighting for my marriage, fighting for my morals and everything — I discovered my strength. My strength, my real strength is discovered.”

Blige, who is promoting her latest studio album, Strength of a Woman, continued: “The journey that got us here is that every woman can relate to a woman out there fighting for her marriage. When I first started writing this album, I was fighting for my marriage. There were a lot of layers to me peeled back for this marriage. I really thought I did [find] the love of my life.”

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“Being Mary J. Blige the celebrity is secondary, and I’m a human being first, and I suffer just like everyone else,” she said. “I believe that I wasn’t given this career or this job as a singer or this gift from God to sit down and say, ‘I’m going to suffer from the world in silence and die.’ And it’s therapeutic for me as well. So, you know, that’s why. It’s not just for me.”

The 46-year-old singer admits every day has been a “challenge” since she split from her husband.

“The beautiful thing is that I got the chance to take something so dark and give my fans a smile on their faces, and give them something that they can appreciate,” she says. “Every single day it’s a challenge, it’s a trial. But, through this trial, I’m going to take care of myself, work out, pray, keep my head up and smile through it.”