WW: Is, is, is Bobby . . . I realize that being married, you know, your money is you know, Bobby’s money and vice versa—
WH: Right.
WW: —but, um, when, you know, so you guys don’t have any money problems—
WH: Well, no, Wendy, not to sell my estate as you said on the radio yesterday.
WW: Oh, no, I didn’t say you were selling your estate for money reasons. I said you were selling your estate to get more privacy, you know—
WH: Oh, I understand. No, no, okay, thank you, darling, for clarifying that. No, I’m not selling my estate and Bobby and I are doing just fine, thank you.
WW: Were you responsible for Bobby leaving New Edition?
WH: I didn’t even know him then.
WW: No, no, no, no—the second time around, when they did the “Come Home” tour?
WH: No. No. I say not at all. They had their own relationship.
WW: Have you ever encouraged Bobby to, uh, possibly, you know . . . Because the guys from New Edition, um, have interviewed and said that they would love it if Bobby came back, you know, to—
WH: That’s Bobby’s world; it’s not mine. It’s his decision. He’s a New Edition member, I’m not.
WW: Did you ever hear that people were buzzing that your relationship with Wyclef was really close and that Bobby and you fought over it?
WH: You? Really?
WW: Yeah.
WH: No, no, no, we don’t do that! Wyclef and I are friends. We grew up together in the hood. He’s from East Orange and so am I. And, um, that’s about as far as that goes. And we musically work together. That’s it. There is no battle, there’s no fighting. That’s crazy.
WW: Well, at one point there was a beef between Bobby and Babyface.
WH: Oh, really?
WW: Yeah.
WH: Well, why don’t you talk to Bobby and Babyface about that?
WW: You know what, Whitney?
WH: What, baby?
WW: You are something else! (Laughs.)
WH: I’ve been waiting to talk to you. I love you, darling.
WW: When are you coming to the studio?
WH: When am I coming to your studio?
WW: Yeah.
WH: You really want me to come there?
WW: I would love that.
WH: Oh, my lord. Well, we gonna make a date, okay?
WW: Yes, we will. Look, do you want to have more children?
WH: Yes, I do. I want a little boy.
WW: Hmm.
WH: I want a mama’s boy.
WW: And you’re going to be forty this year, right?
WH: Oh, tell the world, why don’t ya! Oh, you low-down dirty dog! 4
WW: Whitney, you look great.
WH: Woo, thank you, baby. I feel good, too, thank you.
WW: I mean, the only thing is that you said, um, “Whitney will never be fat!”
WH: No.
WW: I was like “How dare her!”
WH: Never.
WW: What was that?! A dis to all fat girls?
WH: No. I just won’t be fat. Sorry, not good, not healthy. Have you ever heard of anyone being fat being healthy?
WW: Well, you know, being extremely fat or being extremely thin like you on the Michael Jackson special . . .
WH: Well, either extreme is not good.
WW: Yeah.
WH: Not good at all, okay?
WW: Yeah.
WH: Not good at all. So, uh, pull it together and move on.
WW: You smoke weed?
WH: Oh, [shit]! (Laughs.)
WW: (Laughs.) Mariah Carey was on the show and said that she loves you more than ever.
WH: I love that little lamb chop.
WW: And I just wanted to let you know that. How do you feel—
WH: I love that lamb chop; she’s my girl.
WW: Have you uh . . . yeah, she is nice; she’s very sweet. She was here like two weeks ago.
WH: Yeah. She’s the bomb.
WW: She denied her breast implants. Do you deny yours?
WH: Ah, [fuck] no!
WW: See, that’s my girl, Whitney.
WH: No. No.
WW: I got ’em too. I mean, aren’t they the best?
WH: No, I mean, you know, it’s like what. I mean, you know, if you’re gonna go for it, go for it, you know what I mean?
WW: Do you ever wish that you got ’em bigger?
WH: No, my husband loves them.
WW: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah!
WH: He looooves them!
WW: Yeah. They sit nice. They’re very well proportioned with you. It’s just that at one point when you lost so much weight, though, they did look like two baseballs on a stick.
WH: Yeah. They looked really weird.
WW: (Laughs.)
WH: Absolutely. I’m sure that when you look at yourself in the mirror you have some reservations about your looks too.
WW: Absolutely.
WH: (Teasing laughter.)
WW: (Club Cheetah “yayayaya” yell.)
WH: Child, please!
WW: Absolu—
WH: I seen you, I know how you look. (Laughs.)
WW: Uhhh, what? (Laughs.)
WH: Come on, Wendy, more. Come on, baby.
WW: Do you keep in touch with Eddie Murphy? I know you guys were uh—
WH: No.
WW: Now, is it that you are showing respect for your husband because you and Eddie dated or—
WH: Yeah.
WW: Got you. Well that’s, to me, that’s how it’s supposed to be in everyday life. You know what I’m saying? When you go on and you marry somebody—
WH: Come on, Wendy, he’s a married man and I’m a married woman. I mean, we see each other, we speak to each other professionally and say good-bye, that’s it.
WW: Yeah, yeah.
WH: Yeah.
WW: Bobby, um, has had a reputation occasionally to step out on the marriage.
WH: Oh, really?
WW: Say the gossips.
WH: Okay, thank you.
WW: Has infidelity been one of the biggest issues in you guys’ marriage?
WH: No.
WW: What would you say the biggest issue is in you all’s marriage?
WH: You people. You [fucking] people who like to run your [damn] mouths. Unh-huh. Yeah!
WW: Hmm?
WH: Unh.
WW: If you could take back anything that you told Diane Sawyer, what would it be?
WH: (Sucks her teeth.) If I could, if I could say something that I didn’t say, okay, I want to tell anybody that got a problem with Whitney to kiss my [ass]. And I love you, but I don’t live for you. I don’t live for you. You talk about me, you call me out my name, you, you make my mother call me and ask me questions, you make my father sick, you make my brother sick, you make my child hurt. You all talk about me like you know me. You ain’t never met me, ain’t never seen me in your damn life, but you talk about me. That’s not right. There’s a limit to what you can say. And if I was really like back in the day in Newark, I’d meet you outside. I’d meet you outside, but I’m a lady and I have class. But I’ll talk to you, Wendy, ’cause I love you ’cause you a fan, I know it.
WW: I am.
WH: I know it, baby.
WW: I’m a fan of your entire experience, not just—
WH: ’Cause I’m from Newark. I’ll tell you something, I don’t take no [shit] like that. Those are fighting words sometimes you say.
WW: (Sighs.) You know what, though?
WH: What, boo?
WW: I’m a fan of yours. Not just the music, Whitney. I’m a fan of you, the woman.
WH: Thank you. ’Cause my mother is very proud of me, Wendy. She is, she loves me and she respects me. That’s what matters to me. That my mother loves and respects me.
WW: Whose idea was it to set up that Diane Sawyer interview?
WH: Me and L.A. [Reid, head of Arista].
WW: Are you done with the talk show circuit? I mean, will you do
Larry King?
WH: Yeeep, done!
WW: So you won’t go back on Oprah, you won’t do Larry King?
WH: Oprah and I have a relationship. She and I talk. We’ll do something. That’s my girl. Yeah.
WW: Do any of your, um, celebrity girlfriends, whether it be Oprah or Angela Bassett or anybody like that—do they ever try to like, um, ride the train of is Whitney on coke and let me talk to her to get her off?
WH: (Inhales.) You know, they make you to break you. You know what I mean? That’s the name of the game. But I don’t break. I’m not made out of glass, baby. I come from a line of heritage of strong heritage, legacy. You can’t break me.
WW: So when you sit down and have a little glass of something to drink, what’s your favorite drink?
WH: (Inhales.)
WW: I mean, you know, is it Cristal? Is it, you know, Hennessy?
WH: Nah, I’m not a drinker, baby. I like to have a sip of wine every now and then and a little, um, there’s a drink me and Bobby have called the Bobby Brown. I’m not gonna tell you what it’s mixed with, all right?
WW: God, Whitney!
WH: What, baby?
WW: You are a real trip.
WH: I been around the world.
WW: Yeahhhh!
WH: (Chuckles.) Yeahhhh!
WW: How’s Dionne doing?
WH: Dionne’s doing very well, thank you. We got an auntie who just passed away. A very close auntie to my heart and we just buried her last week and I saw Dionne and it was really good to see my lady.
WW: Yeah?
WH: Yeah.
WW: So, your father’s hundred-million-dollar lawsuit, is that done?
WH: [Bullshit.]
WW: It’s, okay. And you guys are . . . He’s dropped the lawsuit and it’s—
WH: It’s [bullshit], Wendy. I love my daddy, my daddy loves me.
WW: I believe that, Whitney.
WH: No, know it.
WW: I thought it was some mess when I saw it going down. I—
WH: [Bullshit]
WW: Um. Do you think that, um, although your parents are divorced, them worrying about you in this demonic thing called show business—
WH: Unh-hunh.
WW: —you think that keeps them together in their own way?
WH: Yes.
WW: Hmm. Your father, um, wasn’t your father dating or married or something like that to a—
WH: He’s married now.
WW: That’s right
WH: To another wife.
WW: How do you get along with your stepmom?
WH: Just fine. I get along with Peggy just fine.
WW: Peggy.
WH: We get along just fine. She’s a sweet lady.
WW: Does your mom date?
WH: Yes, she does. She minds her business too.
WW: So, how will you be spending Valentine’s Day?
WH: With my husband.
WW: I bet you all have wild, circus sex, don’t you?
WH: (Inhales.) Oh, my God! Wendy, don’t make me meet you outside. Come on, now, you getting too deep.
WW: But I can just pic— It, you . . .
WH: You can picture it, couldn’t you?
WW: Yeah!
WH: Ya nasty-ass bitch!
WW: You are such passionate people.
WH: You’re nasty, boo. (Snickers.)
WW: Just wild, circus sex!
WH: (Laughs.)
WW: You know what, Whitney? Would you . . .
WH: What?
WW: Would you ever think about writing a book on your life?
WH: I might, somewhere down the line.
WW: I wrote a book. It’s with Atria Books.
WH: Mm-hmm.
WW: They’re a boutique label of Simon and Schuster and it comes out in the fall of 2003.
WH: Oh, I’mma get it!
WW: And I just found that—
WH: Are you writing it yourself?
WW: Yes, I am.
WH: Good.
WW: Yeah, you want to know what, Whitney?
WH: What, baby?
WW: I found that it was the most therapeutic thing—
WH: I know. I know.
WW: —that I’ve ever done in my life.
WH: I know. See, I do that but I do it with my spiritual partner. You know what I’m saying? You know. I do it with my prayer partner and that’s my therapy.
WW: Do you still go to church?
WH: Yeah.
WW: What church do you go to?
WH: Umm, when I feel like it, it’s right there in my heart.
WW: Okay, okay, I got you.
WH: Mm-hmm.
WW: Well, Whitney. I want to thank you—
WH: Thank you, Wendy!
WW: —for giving me this moment and not hanging up the phone.
WH: No, I wouldn’t do that to you, baby. I’mma talk through.
WW: And being as sassy as you want to be.
WH: (Laughs.) Wendy, I love you! ’Cause you support me and you been good to me on the radio. However, watch what you say, baby girl.
WW: But, Whitney, watch what you do. And if it—
WH: I know it’s not—You don’t even know what I do. Like you said, you never met me, you don’t know me, you ain’t been in my house, you don’t live with me, you don’t sleep with me, you don’t do [shit] for me but talk about me. So watch what you say. That’s all, baby girl. That’s all I’m asking you, is watch what the [fuck] you say.
WW: But, Whitney—
WH: What, baby?
WW: —I would love to have you come in the studio.
WH: Okay, love. We’ll make a date. You call my machine, I’ll call yours.
WW: I would love to be able to—
WH: All right
WW: —read your body language as—
WH: Ooh, you don’t have any idea. I’m sitting here chilling on the Miami balcony just talking to you.
WW: Are you?
WH: Yeah, baby. Just finished eating some chicken.
WW: What’s the weather like?
WH: It’s like seventy-four [degrees].
WW: And who all’s in the room there?
WH: Yeah, just my dog and my secretary and Joey from A, from Arista Records, who is pacing the floor.
WW: And—Now, why is Joey pacing? He wants you to hang—
WH: ’Cause he’s like, you know, you, you don’t . . . you feeling froggy, you better not leap. (Giggles.)
WW: Umm, Whitney, have you ever, has it ever gotten so bad where you ever would consider suicide?
WH: Hell, no! I got a child to live for. Come on.
WW: That’s what I’m talking about.
WH: Work with me. I won’t leave you.
WW: I love you, Whitney.
WH: I love you, too, Wendy.
WW: You take care.
WH: You, too, baby.
WW: Bye.
WH: Be blessed.
CHAPTER
14
Advice Hour
I started giving advice in 1999 when I was in Philadelphia— after being run out of New York. A lot had changed in my life, and I woke up one day and realized, “Damn! I have been through a lot!” And perhaps I had something to offer my listeners beyond the who-is-doing-who gossip items or what all was going on in the world of celebrities.
I was drug free—finally! After being strung out on cocaine for more than ten years, I finally had a clear mind. Philadelphia also gave me time to breathe. It wasn’t New York City, which in many ways made me extremely callous dealing with not only the culture but also the nastiness of the “business.” I got to see life in its purest form.
I got married while I was in Philly. I had two tragic miscarriages and finally delivered my baby boy while in Philly. I had major plastic surgery while there. I would be talking to listeners and all of a sudden, I would find them asking me questions about the things I was talking about on the air—my life.
I gained more than a hundred pounds when I was pre
gnant. I’d had liposuction on my thighs and stomach several years before this and when I gained all of that weight, the fat came back in the strangest places. Thank God, it didn’t settle on my neck or in my face, as many people have complained has happened to them. But it came back on my inner thighs and my back. I had the fattest back in the universe. And I talked about it on the air (Note: generally when you get liposuction and you gain weight, it doesn’t return to those places where the fat was sucked.)
I went back and got liposuction on my inner thighs and back and had a tummy tuck after I gave birth to my son. And people started calling in and asking me questions about plastic surgery.
I used my show as a platform to vent about things that were happening to me, and I realized that I was not alone. Those years I spent in a cocaine stupor, I didn’t really care about what was going on around me, and I was so paranoid that I wasn’t sharing anything that I was doing. But with a clear head, I found out that I wasn’t so alone in the things that I was thinking and doing in my life. And I also found out that if people were calling me for advice, they were just as clueless as I was. Hell, I was trying to navigate through life too. We might as well get through it together.
So advice hour was born.
I will say this right up front—I don’t have any expertise or any clinical background to give advice. The advice I give is simply my opinion or my take on a particular situation, so don’t sue me if you take my advice and things get screwed up. That’s on you. And don’t get mad if you ask for my advice and don’t like the answer that I give. If you’re asking me, you obviously haven’t figured it out for yourself and I’m just giving you my honest opinion on your situation. So if you don’t want the truth, don’t ask me.
It really amazed me that when I took time through sobriety to really listen to people and hear their problems, they needed help with the simplest things. I would get a lot of “I wear a size eleven shoe and I hear you talking about your feet being big. Where do you buy your shoes?” People were looking at me as the Pied Piper of the big foot. I would even get people asking my advice on finding a good ob-gyn—like I was the Yellow Pages or something.
But most of the advice people requested was relationship advice: “I caught my man cheating, what should I do?” or “I have three kids by three different men and I want my current boyfriend to marry me,” or “I am a single man and I want to meet a nice woman.”
There was very little that I couldn’t relate to. I was no longer a twenty-something cocaine addict too selfish in my shit to think clearly. I was a married woman who had been struggling to have a baby and finally did. I came from a suburban, two-parent background and was college educated and married to a man who was a thug. I had been divorced and cheated on. I could talk about everything from drug addiction and liposuction to fake hair.
The Wendy Williams Experience Page 19
