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Deb Antney and her family don’t have the warmest memories from their years of being on Love and Hip Hop Atlanta. Deb appeared as both a guest and and a star on the series from Seasons 1-6, and after watching everything from day-to-day foolery to full-blown physical altercations happen in front of her on the show, the entertainment manager said she realized the series was a hot mess she no longer wanted to be involved with.

“It’s very disgraceful for women,” she told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “It makes our men look horrible. I’m just not for it. I’m not for the drama like that.”

Deb’s son, Waka Flocka, and daughter-in-law, Tammy Rivera, were also not that happy during their time on the show (she got into two physical fights with Betty Idol and Joseline Hernandez, and one near fist fight with Jessica Dime). Waka was in and out of the show for Season 3, 5 and 6, while Tammy was a star for Seasons 3-6, and only appeared as a guest for Season 7. When they all decided to move on from the brainchild of Mona Scott-Young, Deb, who went on to do Growing Up Hip Hop: Atlanta, said Waka and Tammy were hesitant to do any other reality shows. They had a change of heart when the chance to do WE TV’s Marriage Boot Camp, and their own series, Waka & Tammy, which started as a wedding special and grew into the weekly series currently airing, came along.

“They went through so much on the other show, they were a little resistant at first to be open,” she said. “But by the end, they let people see who they are. People have perceptions of celebrities, that they’re not human. But it’s not easy being a mom and wife and entrepreneur and singer like Tammy. I feel women can relate to a lot of her struggles.”

While the couple hash out a lot of their issues in front of the world on the show, they are in a much better place. Deb said they are at least a far cry away from the issues they had on Love and Hip Hop that caused them to separate, which was rough on everyone.

“It just destroyed the inside of me,” she said about watching her son and Tammy struggle. “I could not function.”

Thankfully though, she said being on Marriage Boot Camp equipped them with the tools to change things for the better.

“They still have a ways to go,” she said. “Everybody has growing pains. But they’re doing much better and are much further along than they were before.”

Tammy said in 2018 that she was moving on from the LHHATL but would continue supporting “my girls.” As for Waka, he said they wanted to do their own show because they didn’t like what was presented of them on the Love and Hip-Hop franchise.

“On ‘Love and Hip Hop: Atlanta’ they only give you a good 15 seconds to show who you are in a relationship, and we’re in a different space at the time,” he told the New York Post in 2019. “It was rushed and people formed an opinion. And of course, through all of our turmoil, we have been pretty much open about our lives. You’ve been on this roller coaster with us all the time, so this is it.”

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