In a moving interview with VIBE’s Tracy Garraud, Mashonda Dean open’s up about her newfound independence, re-entering the dating scene, and about coming to terms with her ex-husband’s, Swizz Beatz’s new relationship.
You have to giver her so, so much credit for keeping it together throughout the ordeal. In this interview, she presents herself as a poised, mature woman whose primary concern is the well-being of her son, 3.5-year-old Kaseem.
When asked about her meeting with Alicia Keys, Mashonda divulged that it had occurred in March. She remarked:
When I wrote her that Twitter letter everybody wanted to say things like ‘Oh, what do you need to meet her for? It's not her problem, it's Swizz's." I'm like, ‘You have a kid, go through what I went through and then talk to me.’ I'm not having my son around anybody I don't know. I don't give a sh*t who you are and how much money you have and what management he's going to be under when he visits you. I need to see you and I need you to see how serious I am about him. And that's what happened. We had to sit down, and I told her how I felt. I didn't mention anything else, it was all about my son and it was fine after that. I'm not going sit and talk to [them] about what happened between the three of us. This is about my son.
And though she has not received an apology from the couple, engaged and expecting their first child, she says she does not expect to. In her words,
No, because I honestly feel like they think they didn't do anything wrong. I don't care about their apology. As long as he’s a great dad to my son and she's a good step-mom, they don't have to worry about apologizing because they will never understand or care about the pain I went
There is just too much irony that Mashonda cites “Try Sleeping With a Broken Heart” and a song that was made for her. But at the same time, in a pretty respectful nod to Alicia, she acknowledges that every woman deserves to feel the bliss of being madly in love.
…not at the expense of another woman though. But I understand why some of the decisions were made on her part, because her heart was so in it. I can't fight that [and] I can't fight her because she’s a household name. People are always going to love her for her music, as they should. She makes great music, but no one is really ever going to understand what happened in this house.
And she still wishes Alicia health and happiness as she is expecting, acknowledging that the creation of life should be held to a different standard than the beef surrounding it.
I believe she deserves privacy. I hate hearing people wish bad stuff on her and the baby. I'm like ‘People shut up!’ This is a child, an actual life… someone who has nothing to do with what's going on right now. I wish her the most successful, healthy pregnancy in the world, that child is going to be my son's brother or sister and that's the only way to look at it.
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