Jeannie Mai Responds To Pushback For Saying She Wants To Be Submissive To Her Fiancé Jeezy

Back in April, Jay “Jeezy” Jenkins and Jeannie Mai announced they were engaged. The upcoming marital union between the Trap music legend and The Real talk show co-host generated a lot of attention from celebrity news outlets.

Their relationship once again became headline material over the last few days. On a recent episode of The Real, Mai said, “So, I’m gonna say right here, that I, Jeannie Mai, going into my marriage, I want to submit to my man.” She also stated, “I make the decisions in my life. When I come home, I like the idea that my man leads us.”

Those comments caused a stir online as some people took issue with the idea of a successful, influential woman willingly submitting to a man. Mai was a guest on Thursday’s edition of Tamron Hall, and the Dancing with the Stars season 29 contestant addressed the social media backlash hurled her way over her statements on The Real.

“Well for me, submit does not mean that you are lower or less important than your man. Of course, Jay and I respect each other very equally,” Mai explained to Hall. “What I mean is in my work life, in my actual life, I own my businesses, I run my team, I make all of the decisions, and I lead entirely in the outside of my life. So in my home, I want my man to lead. I want him to take in what I would like and what my wishes are, what my dreams are, and then incorporate it, making the overall decision that’s best for our vision together.”

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Hall then asked the Daytime Emmy Award and NAACP Image Award winner about some women’s response to what she had to say about her preferred role in a relationship. Apparently, the opinions of the Twittersphere and YouTube bloggers are not going to shape her viewpoint on the matter.

“Girl, I am 41. I don’t care what kind of pushback I get from other women out there,” said Mai. “This is my life and coming out of divorce and also making a major decision to marry again after being blessed to fall in love and finding such a beautiful person, I want to be very clear and open about how our life can be so that we make sure that our vision is aligned and that we both are empathetic to each other and know that this is the structure we’re going into. I think the biggest mistake that you can make is not communicating what you want and not setting it up for a win.”