{"id":648513,"date":"2026-08-21T05:20:15","date_gmt":"2026-08-21T05:20:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/648513\/"},"modified":"2026-08-21T05:20:15","modified_gmt":"2026-08-21T05:20:15","slug":"mary-j-blige-opens-up-about-choosing-not-to-have-any-children","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/648513\/","title":{"rendered":"Mary J. Blige Opens Up About Choosing Not to Have Any Children"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tMary J. Blige\u2019s<\/a> musical influence birthed plenty of R&B artists in the \u201990s and into the turn of the century, but the R&B icon opened up about not having any biological children of her own. <\/p>\n

\n\tBlige joined Michelle Obama and Craig Robinson\u2019s IMO podcast <\/a>on Wednesday, where she reflected on her decision to not have kids.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI saw a lot of people struggling,\u201d the 55-year-old began. \u201cI see a lot, you know, my family members needing babysitters and them not having a choice, no freedom. So when you\u2019re younger, those are the words you make, those are the choices you make. I don\u2019t want any kids.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe \u201cReal Love\u201d singer also revealed how she\u2019s had some regret about being kidless as she\u2019s gotten older, but is ultimately happy with the life she\u2019s built. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWhen you get older, you start to see how valuable their teenagers are to them [and] their kids are to them. \u2026 Sometimes I\u2019m lonely, but I\u2019m alone a lot. I\u2019m in my home, but we have a good time. We have a good time. I make sure we have a good time,\u201d she said. \u201cWe by ourselves, we watching movies, I be trying on clothes, I be watching movies. I accept it; it is what it is. I\u2019m not trying to have company and friends; it is what it is.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tMichelle Obama spoke about women feeling pressure to have children as a duty in life. \u201cYou don\u2019t have to be a mother. That doesn\u2019t make you whole,\u201d the former first lady said. \u201cIf you\u2019re not a whole person, a child will not do that for you. It won\u2019t complete you.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Yonkers native married producer Kendu Isaacs in 2003 but filed for divorce in 2016. Blige and Isaacs ultimately settled the tumultuous split<\/a> in 2018.<\/p>\n

\n\tMary J. Blige is currently preparing for another run in Las Vegas as part of her My Life, My Story residency,<\/a> which picks back up in Sin City on Oct. 23. <\/p>\n

\n\tThe Queen of Hip-Hop Soul\u2019s last album arrived in 2024 with Gratitude. She popped out as a guest earlier in August at Chris Brown and Usher\u2019s R&B Tour <\/a>stop in New Jersey. <\/p>\n

\n\tWatch the full Mary J. Blige interview below. Talk about motherhood takes place around the 45-minute mark.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mary J. Blige\u2019s musical influence birthed plenty of R&B artists in the \u201990s and into the turn of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":648514,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[268],"tags":[434,18,117,22921,19,17,2624],"class_list":["post-648513","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-celebrities","tag-eire","tag-entertainment","tag-genre-rb","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-music-news"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/117131819803825972","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/648513","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=648513"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/648513\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/648514"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=648513"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=648513"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=648513"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}