Singer Shamari DeVoe made a splash during her Real Housewives of Atlanta debut, with many of the ladies taking shots at her personal style. This season, DeVoe —a member of the R&B group Blaque and wife of New Edition’s Ronnie DeVoe—will attempt to balance motherhood with a return to the music biz, but her take on one topic in particular had everyone shook: open relationships.
During a bonding activity between the ladies, RHOA vet Cynthia Bailey asked the women to chime in if they’ve ever been in an open relationship. Most of the women stayed mum, but DeVoe spoke up to admit she’d tried it before.
“I’m just keeping it real,” DeVoe said after explaining that being in an open relationship often means being intimate with other people and telling your significant other about it.
In spite of her admission, DeVoe, who’s been with her husband for 17 years, now says she doesn’t advise couples to engage in the practice, though she doesn’t regret the experience.
“I learned that we ARE destiny partners and that we will never allow anybody to come between our love bond again,” DeVoe said. “We went through a lot of heartache and pain, but we stayed committed to working it out and were able to overcome our challenges and use our story as our testimony.”
While admitting that briefly engaging in an open marriage helped bring her and Ronnie closer together, DeVoe advised against it for other couples.
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“If you’re thinking about trying an open marriage, please don’t do it,” she added. “Figure out how to get back to what brought the two of you together and speak to each other’s love languages. I’m a strong advocate of communication and honesty in relationships and extremely passionate about families staying together.”
After being married more than a decade, Shamari might just know what she’s talking about.