Jeannie Mai continues to open up on her journey as a new mom. The pregnant talk show host is expecting her first child with her husband Young Jeezy, and has been using it as an opportunity to talk to different outlets about her experience and how she has been able to grow and learn through the process in new ways. Her latest stop, Shan BOODY’s Lovers and Friends podcast.Their sit down is titled “Why Has Jeannie Mai Has Changed So Much Since She Met Jezzy?” and allows Mai to dig deeper into her marriage and why her husband has been such a catalyst for change for her.
In the description, Shan says, “this 50-minute episode we examine if changing in order to stay in a relationship is healthy or not.” She continues, “Jeannie shares what it is about Jeezy that inspired her to make changes to her character, vibe, sex life, and of course family life.”As promised, the conversation was a no-holds-barred look at how Jeannie, who is still a proud advocate for women who do not want children, managed to change her mind after marrying Young Jeezy. The pair were initially ok with not having kids as Jeezy has already had two from a previous marriage. But, as they got closer, Jeannie describes this unavoidable urge to give Jeezy a child and finally heal from a lot of the childhood trauma that prevented her from initially wanting one.
Towards the tail end of the interview, Mai opens up about a very important topic when asked, “what does life look like now with baby J in your arms?” Being the parent of a mixed-race child comes with many challenges. As Mai describes it, she has always strived to be very educated on the communities around her, calling it her “duty as an America.” “it’s my responsibility to understand the lives and the needs of the cultures that exist around me.” She continues, “I live and dwell with my neighbors that are of different races.”
The talk show host says that job is even more important for her now as she is the wife of an African American man and will soon be the mother to an African American baby. “I need to understand his journey and his perspective,” he says about her husband. She stresses how this is super important if she ever hopes to be of genuine support and ally-ship to her husband and his community. More than ever, she is fighting to adopt black culture and understand her husband’s journey as a man of color in America and what his ancestors went through to stand where they are now. She does not want her baby to only understand her Vietnamese culture. “I can’t have this black child only grow up to know Vietnamese culture.” She says she has to do so much more now that she carries the “blood of linage” of black people in this country and the things they’ve been through.