Niecy Nash says she’s ‘never been with a woman before’ meeting wife on ‘RTT’
Nash shares the hilarious reaction her three kids had when they found out the news
Comedian-Actress Niecy Nash sat down with the hosts of The Red Table Talk to clear the air once and for all on her dating history prior to her surprise marriage to singer Jessica Betts.
On Monday, in an exclusive clip from Wednesday’s premiere episode of the popular Facebook Watch series obtained by PEOPLE, the actress explains how she fell in love with a woman after two marriages with men.
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The 51-year-old comedian kicks off by admitting to Jada Pinkett Smith, Willow Smith and Adrienne Banfield-Norris that she’d “never been with a woman before” dating Betts.
She also recalled the hilarious reaction that her three children — Dia, 21, Donielle, 25, and son Dominic, 28 — who she shares with her first husband Pastor Don Nas, had when finding out their mother was dating another woman.
“My daughters were like, ‘Wait what?'” Nash recalls. “My youngest daughter, she reminded me, she was like, ‘Wait a minute mom, are you the same mom that was like girl, I’m strictly dickly?’ And I was like, ‘Wah, wah. Like yeah, but no.'”
“And my son was like, ‘Wooow,'” she adds as she and the co-hosts burst into fits of laughter.
From Friends to Lovers
As theGrio previously reported, during an appearance on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, Nash spoke candidly about her relationship with her wife, who she told host Ellen DeGeneres she refers to as her “hersband.”
“A lot of people say that, like, ‘Oh, you came out!’ and I say, ‘Well, from out of where?’ You know what I mean?” the 51-year-old actress said of her sexuality. “I wasn’t anywhere to come out of. I wasn’t living a sexually repressed life when I was married to men, I just loved them when I loved them. And now I love her.”
She explained to DeGeneres that she and Betts were friends long before becoming romantically involved and that their relationship blossomed quite organically.
“We were probably friends for about four and a half years,” Nash recalled. “I was already divorced and we were still friends, and we went to go eat crabs.”
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“Ah, that’s it. That’s the gay thing,” DeGeneres playfully responded before Nash teased back, “It’s a gateway, people. If you don’t want this life, don’t go eat crabs.”
“Do not go to eat crabs with your friend,” DeGeneres added. “That’s what will do it. I knew I was going to get to the bottom of it before the commercial.”
Playful banter aside, Nash has always taken seriously how her elevated platform allows her to reframe the way her supporters see the LGBTQ+ community. And as we previously reported, Nash was tapped to host the 32nd GLAAD Media Awards, held virtually this year due to COVID-19.
“I am so thrilled to be hosting this year’s GLAAD Media Awards, honoring the LGBTQ stories and images that change the world by growing acceptance and understanding,” said Nash in a statement, per The Hollywood Reporter.
Red Table Talk premieres Wednesday, March 31 at 12 p.m. E.T/9 am P.T. with new episodes streaming weekly.
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