Source: Twitter

Daphne Wayans’ presence in the spotlight is a conscious choice the ex-wife of Keenen Ivory Wayans made after purposely spending her time not being famous. The smart and stylish Daphne, who has five children with Wayans, says that divorce did not stop her from going back to being Keenen’s friend, creating a healthy structure for their kids, or cultivating her personal growth and friendships. In fact, she’s been friends with Sheree Fletcher and Nicole Murphy for two decades. So it might appear that Daphne Wayans came out of nowhere to join the reality TV bandwagon, but she’s been herself all along, and now we get to see the woman who was just a girl when she met the Wayans family. Since finishing season 2 of VH1’s Hollywood Exes, Daphne spoke with MN about her journey and why she finally decided to join the reality show business.

Madame Noire: What was it like being married to Keenen Ivory Wayans?

Daphne Wayans: It was many things, but mostly a lot of love and a lot of fun. I was 16 when I met him, and didn’t start dating him until I was 18. I learned a lot from him being that I was very young. I had a lot of room to grow. We were together for about 13 or 14 years; 15 is an easy round number to say. By the time we got married, I had  had almost all of our children. I like to include all of those years because we were creating a family.

MN: Why did you two decide to split after five children?

DW: There’s not any one reason why we decided. When I do these interviews people go, “what happened?,” as if I’m going to say, “he kicked me.” So, I don’t like to call it a split or divorce because we were still together in so many ways. It was more of a shift, a change in structure. We live five houses from each other. We still operate as a family. We’re not husband and wife for sure, but we’re definitely parents to our children. I think I can speak for him to say, it’s our greatest creation in our lives. So you don’t separate so easy. In the legal world, the paper seals the deal, but in the real world, there’s still a lot there. A marriage is may be one quarter business and three quarters your heart, your emotion, and your life.

MN: How was it for you being a single mother after the divorce?

DW: Well, I would say that from a technical standpoint, I am a single mother. I’m not married to the father of my children and we don’t live in the same house. I tell people all the time, don’t let me be the symbol of your divorce because people would be wanting to get divorced. I mean he has them one week and I have them the next. My children like it very well because they are very clear on who brings what. Oftentimes, you get this immersion of parents, and I don’t mean to say that that’s bad, but it’s more clear now. There’s times that we have to come together and make a decision as a family. It’s made us have mutual regard for each other, and I see that the roles exist for a reason.

MN: Why do you want to join reality TV as a Hollywood Ex?

DW: The producers and some of the other stars are very old friends of mine. Sheree and Nicole are very old friends, a couple of decades old. This show piqued my interest because my friends were involved, and I was a part of the original pitching cast, so I pitched the show to all of the original networks with them. I had been asked so often to write about my experience and my journey, from divorce to now. So I thought I could share that, my experiences, broadly. If I can change any viewpoints or perspectives that would be good because people go into this cruel, nasty beingness of being a divorcee. I know that people are doing the best they can, but my thing is, what did you guys start as? You were friends? Go back to being friends.

Source: Blog.VH1

Good news! “Hollywood Exes” is coming back for a second season and they’re bringing a new cast member with them, Keenan Ivory Wayans’ ex-wife, Daphne. A couple of months ago, we reported that the mother of Keenan’s five children, whom he was married to for three or four years, was vying for a chance to join the cast, and according to a press release on VH1′s blog, she succeeded.

The announcement says all five women, Nicole Murphy, Mayte Garcia, Jessica Canseco, Sheree Fletcher, and Andrea Kelly, will be returning for the renewed season in 2013 along with Daphne who is a longtime friend of Nicole and Sheree.

“Daphne will join the rest of the ladies as they continue to step out of the long shadows cast by their famous exes and support each other on the next stages of their lives,” the site says.

Though “Hollywood Exes” didn’t quite put up “Love & Hip-Hop” numbers on VH1, with an average of 1.5 million viewers, the ladies proved that people like to watch classy women as well, and you don’t have to act a you know what to be entertaining. I’m sure Andrea Kelly’s hilarious sayings kept people coming back for more too.

Are you looking forward to season 2?

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Source: Theybf.com

It’s hard to tell how interested the public is in VH1′s new show “Hollywood Exes.” The series definitely hasn’t attained as much attention as the network’s other reality hits like “Basketball Wives” and “Love & Hip-Hop” but should one of the few sensible shows on the channel get picked up for a second season, Keenan Ivory Wayan’s Ex-Wife Daphne wants to be down.

According to TMZ:

Sources tell us, Daphne Wayans – who was married to Keenan from 2001 to 2004 and has 5 children with him — will join the cast for the second season of the VH1 show … just as soon as they get picked up by the network.

According to Wikipedia’s timeline, Keenan and Daphne were married in 2000 and he filed for divorced three years later in 2003, but by either account the two were only married a short while. Not much is known about what Daphne has been up to since becoming single but the good thing is if she does join the cast it won’t be to stir up drama. TMZ caught Daphne hanging out with a couple of her potential future cast mates, Sheree Fletcher and Andrea Kelly, and they appear to all be pretty cool with each other which is a very good thing. The closer the friends, the less the problems—unless we’re talking about Jennifer Williams and Evelyn Lozada. Only time will tell whether the “Hollywood Exes” will be brought back and Daphne will have a chance to tell her side of the story. Season 1 is just about half over.

Have you been keeping up with “Hollywood Exes?” Would you want to see Daphne join the cast?

Brande Victorian is the news and operations editor for madamenoire.com. Follow her on twitter @Be_Vic.

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