Source: Black Love/OWN / Black Love/OWN
Last week, the season 4 debut of “Black Love” streamed on OWN. With Black people sharing the very personal details of their love stories, the show ends up generating a lot of conversation, good and bad. After last week’s premiere, the couple that had people going was Anthony and Melanie.
For those of you who missed their story, it was a little disheartening to hear that after Melanie uprooted her life, drove twelve hours on the highway, and relocated her children, Anthony slowly started pulling away from her, as he came to the realization that he wasn’t ready to be in a relationship.
Even though we saw the two of the sitting on the couch together, it was like, ‘Damn bruh, you couldn’t have told her you weren’t ready before she moved?!’
But a recent clip from the Black Love’s subseries “After Love” shows that perhaps Anthony still had some healing to do after his first marriage before he could fully commit himself to Melanie.
Check out the back story below. It’s a doozy.
Melanie: Yes, we’d both been married before. I wasn’t trying to be in love. I was free after being married for ten years. I was modeling, I was writing a book. I was living my best life. And after we started dating, I was like ‘Damnit. I just want to have fun and be free but I’m in love. I’m falling in love. ‘
Anthony: We both were like that, living our dreams, living our best life and we were still healing from our first marriages that failed. So it was like, in my heart, since I was kid, I’ve always known that I’m going to find this amazing woman who’s going to be soulmate. We’re going to have this amazing love affair and we’re going to turn around and teach the world to love like that as well.
So literally, since I was little boy. I knew it. Even in my first marriage, it was like, ‘You ain’t it. I can still feel her out there.’
The man from one of the other couples on this season asked Anthony how soon into the marriage, he knew his wife wasn’t it.
Anthony: Before I even got married. The only reason I married her was because she was my college girlfriend. We broke up and we were having ex sex. And she came back and she was like, ‘I’m pregnant.’ And I was like, ‘Are they mine? Are the babies mine? They are twin boys. And she said, ‘Yeah, they’re yours.’
And I said, ‘When we weren’t together, I was doing my thing. So be honest with me, when we weren’t together, were you doing your thing?’
She was like, ‘No, no, no.’
So to make a long story short, that’s why I married her. My father wasn’t there for me so I always told myself I’m going to be there for my kids regardless. So even though me and her didn’t get along, we fought like cats and dogs, it was like I gotta do what I thought was the right thing. And so I married her because of the kids.
And I remember when we were trying on our tuxedos, I was with her brother and her father, it slipped out. I was like, ‘The next time I get married, I want to wear blue.’ And they were like, ‘What?!’ I was like, did you hear that?
In my heart, I knew she wasn’t the one. And then it turned out after four years, after marrying her, I found out the twins weren’t mine. And they were named after me: Anthony and Andrew. And at the time, I was pursuing a professional baseball career and basketball overseas. So I gave all of that up for the marriage.
So then it was like I gave up my dream and then I lost the loves of my life, my boys—they were named after me. And it was like I hit rock bottom. There were times when I even felt suicidal. But it was like,, you know what I could still feel her out there. Life was like, ‘She’s still out there.’ But in order for you to be a match to that amazing releationship, I gotta get my sh*t together. I gotta be the best me.”
You can watch this conversation play out in the video below.
Source: Black Love / OWN
Ahead of this weekend’s episode, we have a clip from the upcoming show discussing mental health, featuring Joe and Leslie. See how Joe knew Leslie was the one because of the way she kept causing him to dream bigger.
Joe: With her, she stayed on me. ‘I want kids. I want this. I want a house.’ I wasn’t thinking about that in 2005, at 24-years-old. She was already. And she would say something and then she’ll make it happen. She’d say, ‘Next year, let’s move into a house, just you and I.’ And I’d say, ‘We can’t afford a house. What are you talking about?’ That next year we’re moving into a house. And I’m like, going through this whole journey with her, I was just thinking, ‘She’s the one.’ Because she was pushing me to think bigger than what I actually thought. And then the trust started to grow there because we were with each other every day.
I have a problem expressing myself.
Leslie: To me.
Joe: I’m one of those guys where I’ll tell you I love you once a year kind of guys. But you know I love you the whole 365 days of that year. But I may not say it but once or twice a year. She know I love her though. This is how we acted actually on the marriage day.
The next episode of “Black Love” airs Saturday, September 12 at 9:00 p.m. ET/PT.
