Mary J. Blige’s marriage officially ended in 2018, and she was ordered to pay her ex-husband $30,000 a month in alimony. But Mary J. isn’t one to give up easily. Despite her rough patch, she’s managed to pull through and is now stronger than ever.
The RnB music Queen went through a messy divorce with her ex-husband Kendu Isaacs. The circus of the separation had taken over the public eye all through the mid to late-2010s. But the beauty of the whole thing is Blige has bounced back stronger and better like the phoenix that she is.
So, what can we learn from Mary J.’s experience? Well, for one, it’s important to never give up – no matter how bad things seem. Secondly, it’s always important to have a strong support system. And finally, it’s important to stay positive and focus on the future.
Mary J Blige’s Divorce And Court Proceedings Revealed A Lot Of Hidden Things About Their Marriage
The divorce court judge ordered Mary J. Blige to pay her estranged husband, Martin “Kendu” Isaacs, $30,000 monthly in spousal support.
She had previously filed for divorce from her husband, her manager, in 2016. Blige stated that “irreconcilable differences” were the reason for the split. They separated in 2015 after being married for 12 years.
Mary J. Blige finally settled with ex-husband/manager Martin “Kendu” Isaacs two nights before she was slated to appear at the Academy Awards ceremony.
She had been nominated for Best Supporting Actress and Song in the film for her performance in the 2017 Netflix original movie, Mudbound. Apparently, according to court documents from the divorce trial her expenses were more than her earnings from the role.
Isaacs had claimed to be “unemployable” and cannot pay rent without Blige’s financial support. He added that he had “experienced physical manifestations of stress and emotional distress from this matter, which has caused him to become hospitalized.” This had been discovered when The Blast had obtained court
Isaacs had argued to the Los Angeles Superior Court that she had left him with ‘no source of income’ after firing him from being her personal manager, a position he had held throughout their marriage.
Reportedly, Blige had been complaining about her then-husband Martin Isaacs’ lavish spending habits since the beginning of their marriage.
In May 2017, PEOPLE obtained more court documents where Mary J. Blige had claimed that Isaacs had spent in excess of $420,000 on “travel charges” which had involved a woman he had been seeing outside the marriage.
The documents also revealed that she had also said that Isaacs had commandeered and refused to return her “Grammy and other achievement awards.”
Martin Isaacs had originally demanded $130,000 in monthly spousal support, so he could continue to bask in the ‘lavish’ lifestyle he had been enjoying before she had filed for divorce, which included a private chef, personal trainer sessions and vacations
So what can we learn from Mary J. Blige’s story? Well, even though life can be tough sometimes, we should never give up. We should keep fighting, no matter what – because that’s what makes us strong women (and men).
Clearly, things didn’t work out between the two – but we have to give Blige props for trying to hold on to her money the best she could.
The Result Of The Divorce Affected Mary J Blige’s Finances And Made Her Go Broke
On an iHeart Radio special hosted by Angie Martinez, Mary J. Blige performed the lead single “Rent Money” from her 15th studio album “Good Morning Gorgeous”, together with Dave East, a Harlem rapper. After the performance, she talked about the inspiration of the song.
Apparently, her painful divorce from Martin “Kendu” Isaacs had inspired the song. She had said, “Rent money is [about] when I first got divorced. I had to give up all this alimony, and I didn’t have no more money to give because he had spent it all. So, I had to go, you know, I had to go on tour, and make all the money back to pay the alimony.”
She explained how she had developed money problems due to the fact that Isaacs had wasted all of her money and so when she had been ordered to cough up a monthly alimony cheque of $30,000, she had gone broke trying to pay her rent and other bills.
Because the judge had in addition to the $30,000 monthly payments, asked Blige to make retroactive payments to Isaacs back to September of the previous year, including the attorney fees Isaac’s owed, her first check to Isaacs rang in at somewhere in the ball-park of $235,000.
While doing an interview with Vulture, Mary J. Blige talked about her financial problems that had been as a result of the divorce proceedings. In addition to the $30,000 she was to be paying in spousal support, she
was owing the IRS $6.5 million in eight years of back taxes.
All these debts made her earn zero from the European leg of her tour together with the movie Mudbound which had earned her Oscar nomination.
You’re not alone if you thought that courts always favor the wealthier spouse in a divorce, which unfortunately for Mary J. Blige, was her undoing. With the court-ordered alimony payment, Mary’s finances quickly found themselves in free-fall.
It must have felt almost like being told to hand over your wallet at gunpoint – except they’re legal gunpoint. But Mary found a way to fight back and with a lot of hard work and dedication she clawed her way back up from rock bottom, eventually becoming financially stable again.
Without a financial tightrope to balance on, most people would’ve gone into a panic or just quit trying. But not Mary. She kept going, gigging around the world, increasing her brand visibility and launching a new album.
