For some reason, during the second part of the R&B Divas LA reunion, aside from the drama, the conversation turned to plastic surgery–who had it and why. But in the midst of explaining why she had a nose job, Michel’le brought back the drama by bringing up her past, and the domestic abuse she suffered at the hands of one of her exes. After doing some digging (aka, being nosy), Wendy Williams realized that the “ex” Michel’le was referring to was Dr. Dre. Michel’le would go on to talk about why she stayed in that relationship, how the abuse affected her career, and what part Suge Knight played in being her “knight in shining armor” to get her out of that relationship. Who would have thought? Here’s how the conversation went when Wendy asked Michel’le about her surgery:
Wendy: “The nose is very obvious, you’ve also talked about abuse. Pardon the blogs and me if we tryto put to and two together. Was your nose broken by, say, one of your baby’s fathers?”
Michel’le: “Yeah, one of my boyfriends hit me and crooked it, so I had to try and straighten it and it took years because it cost a lot of money.”
Wendy: “One of your baby’s fathers we’re speaking of, broke your nose?”
Michel’le: “Absolutely.”
Wendy: “And you stayed?”
Michel’le: “I stayed because my father had never told me he loved me until just the last three years when my mom died, so I think I had to go back and figure that out. It’s in my book but I think that had a lot to do with that. Getting beat was love to me. Believe it or not when I got with Suge he really didn’t beat me. I asked him, ‘Why aren’t you beating me? You don’t like me?’ I asked him that. He thought, naw that’s not…'”
Wendy: “By saying Suge didn’t beat you, the finger is pointing at you Dr. Dre…”
Michel’le: “He knows it. It was very public. It was very, very public so that wasn’t a secret. I did five videos and we had to cover three black eyes. It seemed like the day before the video, I would get a black eye and had to cover it. But it was okay because I loved him. I truly, truly, truly thought he loved me. I didn’t take it as anything bad, nor did I grow up seeing it in my household.
I finally realized that that wasn’t good, and believe it or not the person who helped me see that was Suge, he helped me see that it wasn’t a normal thing. He tried to do that one time to me but I fought back. He tried to rough me up but by that time I was over it. Things flying. I was ready then. By the time I got out the hospital [laughs]. I know it sounds really crazy but it was my life. I can truly say that a lot of things that happened in my life, saved my life. Everything I’m going through saved my life.”
Ironically, Chante Moore also had nose surgery because she had the same situation–an ex broke her nose. That’s a sad thing to have in common. Check out the reveal from both in the reunion video below if you missed the episode this week. The conversation about the abuse begins at the 29:00 mark.
