MadameNoire Featured Video

61st Annual GRAMMY Awards - Arrivals

Source: Axelle/Bauer-Griffin / Getty

Since gaining her seat at the co-host table on The Real in 2013, Jeannie Mai has been open about her decision to not have kids, and the ways in which it impacted her now defunct marriage to ex-husband Freddy Harteis. She said last year that it indeed played a part in their divorce, despite the fact that in the 14 years they dated and were married, she made it clear she didn’t want to have kids.

In 2016 though, the 40-year-old hinted for the first time at the idea that she might just be interested in having kids after all. Maybe.

“I’ve always heard for women that as you get older, there’s something in you that turns at some moment when you decide to have kids,” she said on the show. “Well, mid-20s I never felt it. Thirties, cold as hell, there was nothing in here. Still partying and having fun. Mid-30s now late 30s, just the beginning of this year, after maybe being around kids…I felt my uterus wiggle. It’s actually a little spiritual.”

“All I’m saying is…I’m 37, I know I’m not getting any younger. I know if I was going to have a kid, I should decide now, today, five minutes ago,” she added. “So I’ve decided I’m going to start thinking about freezing my eggs. I just want to think about it. I don’t want anybody’s hopes to get up, because freezing my eggs just means giving me the option. It doesn’t mean anything is guaranteed.”

Well, nearly three years later, Mai revealed this week that she actually went ahead with the egg freezing after all, and now, she’s trying to figure out what she’s going to do with them.

“Just in case,” she said. “l’ve always said, five seasons, I’m never going to have kids. I have 11 eggs. They’re so cute you guys!”

Mai can’t say anything about gender or anything like that just yet, because she simply did egg retrieval  — she doesn’t have embryos. She didn’t undergo IVF, where eggs are extracted and combined with sperm outside the body. So if she does decide to go forth with having kids, she still has to find a certain suitor in order to get the process going. Still, she doesn’t know what she’s going to do, but her eggs are waiting for a few years, and she has “the option” she’s been wanting.

“It’s really weird. After you turn 40, I’m telling you guys, it’s a magic age. If you really spend the time, like get excited about your 40s, spend all the time giving yourself love, when you get to that place all of a sudden, because your heart is full and you’re healthy, all of a sudden you’re open to love in so many different areas,” she said. “So who knows? You might have a little Jeannie!”

Play

Comment Disclaimer: Comments that contain profane or derogatory language, video links or exceed 200 words will require approval by a moderator before appearing in the comment section. XOXO-MN