Jeezy and Jeannie Mai have very different perspectives on the dissolution of their marriage.
During a sitdown with Bishop TD Jakes for Jakes’ “NXT Chapter” podcast, the newly minted Guinness World Record Holder opened up about what he learned from the divorce from the former “The Real” host and assuredly told Jakes, “I learned I was a great husband.”
He added, “I got a beautiful daughter out of the situation, so there’s no regrets there. But I learned a lot about myself, that there’s things that I continue to work on. I learned about my preferences for things, the type of space that I need. The type of moments I need to decompress about certain things and this unselfish nature that I was selfish in my prior life.”
Jeezy and Mai’s relationship in the beginning was something out of left field. The pair met on “The Real” in 2018 and soon began dating shortly thereafter. In Jeezy’s eyes, their five-year relationship helped him become a better person, despite the bitter ending.
“I think just going forward in life, it just taught me how to give someone else grace and actually listen to understand, rather than just to listen to reply,” Jeezy told Jakes. “Because when you’re sharing life with somebody, it’s almost like you don’t become one, but this is a partnership, right? And so for me, it’s almost like I’ve never experienced anything like that, just coming from where I came from. I never had to share… So I just think it taught me a lot about what compromising was like, and things I can just work on as a person.”
The couple, who share a 3-year-old daughter, Monaco, split after two years of marriage. The Atlanta rapper filed the divorce petition, citing that the pair were “currently living in a bona fide state of separation” and the marriage was “irretrievably broken.” After accusations of domestic abuse and questions of custody, a Georgia judge granted the couple’s divorce in 2024. Even though Jeezy seems at ease with the split, his ex-wife is sharing her own vulnerabilities while dealing with the label of being a “divorcee.”
In a seven-minute video uploaded to her YouTube channel on Dec. 5 titled “divorced, 46, single … with a toddler,” Mai can be seen doing daily tasks and, at one point, watches Monaco play with toys, opening up about the split and being candid about what she described as an “earth-shattering” experience and a “wake-up call.”
“I’m still adjusting to however the word labels me,” Mai said at the 39-second mark. “It’s not a bad thing, it’s just an adjustment. It’s like putting on a new pair of glasses. Everything suddenly looks honest, even the parts that I wasn’t ready to see.”
She later added, “Divorce is a word you never imagine attached to your name. Not because you’re special, but because you think you know how to save something before it breaks.”
The video finds Mai continuing to live her life despite the labels and maintaining a focus on growth for herself and her baby girl.
“As a divorcee, you’re always seeing people say what are the things that warn you before a divorce happens,” Mai said. “The one thing I can tell you is that nobody tells you that divorce is both earth-shattering and a wake-up call. It’s because the life that you pictured disappears, and the future you actually need starts calling out to you. And the hardest part about divorce isn’t heartbreak, it’s letting go of the woman I performed with, the version of me that I maintained because I was scared to admit the truth. The dream I kept dragging even after it stopped fitting…You’re just finally honest.“
