Erica Jean dishes on her “Iyanla: Fix My Life” appearance
During a recent episode of “Iyanla: Fix My Life” viewers watched as Erica Jean of “Love & Hip Hop” fame was pelted by questions from the life coach. And while some viewers thought Iyanla’s questions about her troubled co-parenting relationship with rapper Saigon were well warranted, others thought Vanzant was too harsh.
According to Jean herself, the show was one-sided and ultimately didn’t help repair her ties to her baby’s father.
Below the reality star tells her side of the story. -danielle canada
What made you want to be on “Iyanla: Fix My Life”?
We recorded that in January. When I wrote in [to the show] in November me and Saigon were having a lot of difficulty in our relationship and I figured that that this would be a good opportunity to help us hash things out and figure out how we could get along for our son.
Do you think you were misrepresented?
A lot of the things in the interview, I was caught off guard on, and I felt like Saigon maybe had an agenda going in prior to me knowing. I felt like a lot of information that was being thrown at me was very one-sided. I don’t think it was a fair interpretation.
Do you think she was biased towards Saigon?
I don’t think they really saw the show [Love & Hip Hop] and I don’t think they really listened to why I wrote in and I know that I’m somewhat to blame because I chose to be with him with us not being in a relationship, but I think the core problem was his verbal abuse towards me. It’s not that I can just dump him and move on because we have a son together. It was pretty much for me, before we go to the courts, I kind of wanted to see if we could reconcile, but I think Iyanla was just pretty much pointing the finger at me and not rectifying the problem. It made it worse because I think after him doing the show and seeing the show it made him feel like his behavior towards me was justifiable. In the beginning, when she said something about being called a b—-, why do you respond to that? I didn’t really understand what she meant in a sense. I thought she was saying that, ‘why do you allow him to call you a b—– and you respond’ because I respond, but I don’t respond in a good way; we argue. I feel like it was kind of an attack and it didn’t help us at all.
At one point, you seemed to get upset when Iyanla asked you about your plastic surgery. Did you think that question was irrelevant?
I think that Brian [Saigon] and her had a discussion prior. Brian has always tried to bring that up towards me and throw it in my face. That’s another way of degrading me. I think he and Iyanla must have had a conversation. I don’t know how she would just come and get that. I feel like Brian must have given her a laundry list of things about me and she just kind of went from there. I don’t see how bringing that up is important in how we co-parent. I just felt like Brian knew what was going on, I don’t know if this is a way to make his image better after the show so I think he knew what he was doing and how he was going to do it and the producers went [with] his side.
Did you learn anything from the show?
Now looking back at it, I did learn things. I did learn how to set boundaries with Brian. I think I do have certain issues, of course everybody does. I understand where she was trying to bring them out to my attention but I don’t [think] that helped me with co-parenting with Brian.
Are you returning to “Love & Hip Hop?”
I really don’t think I am. I think that I’m done with reality TV. Doing that was definitely a great experience and gave me a lot of opportunities. I never wanted to be a part of the show, Brian was part of the show first and they brought me in later because the person he was doing the show with was fired. It never was my idea to be a reality star, it was to help my son’s father in his career because he was trying to bring it from the dead. That’s why I think for me it’s better for me to go on and find other things that I love to do that doesn’t have to do with exposing my personal life.
What else are you working on?
I’m an actress, I went to school for that. I went to Howard University and I have play in the works that’s going to be out in August and I’m working on a few independent films.
Instagram: @TherRealEricaJean
