Flex & Shanice share their financial comeback story, defend sexless dating before marriage

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OWN’s reality series Flex & Shanice is back with a second season and follows the lives of husband and wife duo actor Flex Alexander (One on One) and pop singer Shanice (“I Love Your Smile”) and their extended family, all living together under one roof.

From the outside looking in, Flex and Shanice have had a fairy tale marriage, but what the couple has been hiding from the world is that they have been struggling financially for the past five years, prompting them to move in with their extended family to help make ends meet.

While Flex hustles to support the family and kickstart his career, Shanice struggles to balance being a mom with her demanding new recording schedule. This family is just trying to hold it together long enough to catch that one big break that could turn their luck around.

The couple say they decided to allow cameras in to capture it all, in hopes of inspiring people.

“It was something we both agreed to do. We had gone though tough financial times and just everything was upside down,” Flex said in an interview with theGrio. “We wanted to tell a story that’s inspiring, that people can look and say, ‘hey it’s not just me.”

Flex and Shanice opened up about how things went wrong financially, ultimately forcing them to file for bankruptcy.

“At one point, her music stopped. One on One ended, and you have these expenses and there’s nothing coming in to replenish those expenses… everything’s going out,” Flex recalled. “We had an American Express black card, we had our mortgage… those things add up. We tried to get a loan modification to save the house. We just went though all types of stuff.We lived at the Embassy Suites… Yes we lost our home… We were living in a hotel.”

One thing the couple didn’t lose is each other. After 15 years, their marriage is stronger than ever.

Flex and Shanice weighed in on Ciara and Russell Wilson’s very public decision to abstain from having sex while dating.

“That’s our story as well… we waited until we got married,” Flex revealed. “We only dated 4 months, were friends prior… probably close to a year between friendship and dating. Then we got married and we got pregnant the first year.”

“With Ciara and Russell Wilson, people are giving them a hard time.. but I think if that’s her choice. I don’t see anything wrong with that. She’s probably saying, ‘hey I had a baby. I did it that way. I want to try something different. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that.”

“It’s okay to wait for your husband,” Shanice added.

Catch all new episodes of Flex & Shanice Saturdays at 10/9C on OWN.