Brandy, 47, is opening up for the first time about her rumored relationship with Boyz II Men singer Wanya Morris. In her newly released memoir Phases, the “I Wanna Be Down” singer confirms that the long-circulating rumors from the 1990s were true. However, what she once believed to be love and a genuine connection is something she now sees differently, writing that she was “too young to recognize she was being used,” according to an excerpt obtained by Entertainment Weekly.
The Grammy-winning R&B artist recalls meeting Morris for the first time in 1995 while opening for Boyz II Men on their II World Tour. At the time, Brandy was just 16, fresh off the release of her debut album, while Morris was 22.
She explains that their relationship began professionally, with Morris stepping into a “mentor” role. Over time, however, their connection deepened. He began calling and checking in on her frequently, offering guidance as both an “anchor” and “confidant.” Their bond intensified further during the tour, especially after filming the music video for “Brokenhearted,” when she noticed an “unspoken energy” growing between them.
“What had begun as admiration had transformed into something else,” Brandy writes, per Entertainment Weekly. “It seems to me that he weaponized my admiration, shaped my friendship into dependence, my respect into desire. I felt swept up in a current I couldn’t control.”
She continues:
“We moved around each other like opposing magnets — as if actively trying to maintain distance even as we kept finding ourselves drawn into each other’s orbit,” she writes. “The attraction was subtle yet undeniable. It lived in the pauses between conversations, and it lingered in the charged atmosphere surrounding us.”
She felt scared to tell family or close friends about the relationship, according to the singer’s excerpt in Phases.
As their relationship progressed, Brandy says it developed quickly, leaving her burdened with guilt over keeping it hidden from her family and the public.
“But it wasn’t just about upsetting — or disappointing — my parents,” she penned, according to an excerpt obtained byPEOPLE. “Wanya and I understood, with diamond-cut clarity that public knowledge of our relationship would ignite scandal, potentially threatening everything we’d both worked for, so he and I opted for elaborate fiction: we would pretend patience and claim we were waiting until my eighteenth birthday before pursuing any romantic connection.”
Confusion progressed for the singer, who won her first Grammy in 1999, when Morris, now 52, allegedly only referred to her as his girlfriend when they were in private.
“‘My girlfriend is sixteen.’ I don’t remember when he first said it. But those four words started rolling off his tongue whenever we were alone,” she writes of Morris, per EW. “I couldn’t tell if this refrain was meant to soothe his own conscience or temper the questions shimmering in my gaze. Perhaps it was his way of tethering himself to a boundary, even as he quietly edged past it. Or maybe it was simply a reminder to himself, a whisper to keep the illicit nature of our connection in view. Regardless, I was under the impression that we were madly in love — or at least what I believed love to be at sixteen. A grown man’s version of love, designed to serve his needs.”
She also reflected on her first sexual encounter with Wanya Morris.
Elsewhere in Phases, Brandy reflects on their first sexual encounter, saying it “lacked the specialness I had painted in my mind, because it wasn’t about me at all.” She adds that the experience was shaped by “the influence of a man who seemed to know exactly how to make me question my own beliefs and boundaries.”
“And I hung in this strange balance,” she continues. “I was navigating that time in full view of the world, every move scrutinized, every choice dissected by people who didn’t know my heart. Part of me wanted to retain some semblance of ‘normalcy,’ but also I knew full well that what was happening between me and him was wrong. And yet, my attitude was, ‘This was special. This was real. People just can’t understand.’”
Looking back, she describes the sexual dynamic as Morris “getting what he wanted from someone too young to recognize she was being used.” She adds that she was “too naive to realize that deep down inside he did not see me as special. I think he saw me as conquerable. As someone whose boundaries could be negotiated away. I was in over my head.”
Here’s what Wanya Morris had to say about his relationship with Brandy.
In 2021, Wanya Morris spoke about his relationship with Brandy during a livestream, explaining that she was initially his friend and “protege,” noting that she had been “a big fan” of his early in her career. Morris said they began working together after her rise to fame on Moesha, and claimed that, after spending significant time together, they started to “fall in love.” He also maintained that they did not begin dating until “she became of age.”
“As time progressed we grew out of each other,” he added. “Yes it was a hurtful thing to breakup… she grew out of me and I grew out of her. I might have grown out of her a little bit faster. But it’s a relationship, you’re young and you make decisions.”
Brandy’s story is far too familiar.
Sadly, Brandy is not the first to come forward with allegations of grooming in the music industry. Her story reflects a troubling pattern told far too often: young, eager singers stepping into the spotlight without the support systems needed to navigate situations like these in the music industry are often subject to shame, guilt, and silence. Where were the mentors and elders around to protect her?
In February, singer Reshona Landfair, now 41, spoke out about this plight and the trauma she says she endured at the hands of disgraced R&B star R. Kelly. As a teenager, Landfair was the minor widely identified in court documents as “Jane Doe” in the Grammy-winning singer’s sex trafficking and child pornography case due to a viral sex tape she filmed with the singer at the age of 14. She revisits the humiliation and long-lasting damage of that moment in her memoir, Who’s Watching Shorty: Reclaiming Myself from the Shame of R. Kelly’s Abuse.
According to Fox 32 Chicago, Landfair met R. Kelly at age 13 through her aunt, singer Sparkle, who was signed to his label at the time. Landfair, an aspiring vocalist herself, began spending time in the studio with the Chicago native. What began as mentorship, she alleges, soon shifted into grooming. Lanfair told Fox 32 Chicago that when she tried to speak out, she lacked support.
“Not many people advocated or spoke out. A lot of people were operating out of fear or not wanting to lose their jobs or just kind of sweeping it under the rug. Robert held a lot of power in the community, in the industry.”
Speaking to the New York Post on Feb. 20, Landfair recalled getting “the chills” when she learned the private sex tape she had filmed with the singer had been leaked and was being copied and sold on street corners nationwide, the troubling video where she could be seen being urinated on by the disgraced singer.
“There was no professional setting that I could be in where that situation wouldn’t come up — or if I’m in a relationship or dating,” Landfair said. “It’s affected me in many areas that I don’t even speak about.”
In her memoir, the Chicago native details the trauma she says she endured — first through R. Kelly’s actions, and later through what she describes as failures within the legal system. Landfair writes that she never watched the tape herself until she testified against R. Kelly during his 2022 racketeering and sex crimes trial. As a minor during the 2008 case, she says she was not present in court and later learned that the footage had been viewed by jurors and spectators alike, with her full name unredacted in court documents.
“I could not know that jurors silently gasped or snickered while a gallery full of spectators did the same as they watched a child pornography video for a trial about child pornography,” she writes inside Who’s Watching Shorty: Reclaiming Myself from the Shame of R. Kelly’s Abuse. “It’s painful to think about, even now.”
