In a recent interview, Mary J. Blige shared why motherhood isn’t her ministry.
The singer was asked in a chat with E! Daily Pop from last month if she ever thought she might wake up one day and regret not having kids. The star said at 51, such a feeling hasn’t occurred and likely won’t.
“Oh, I’m not there yet. I am not there yet so I’m good,” she replied. “Listen, I have nieces and nephews forever. I’m always watching how people are scrambling around for babysitters [laughs]. I don’t wanna go through that.”
She added, “I like my freedom. I like being able to get up and go and move and do what I want to do. I don’t want to have to tend to someone all the time. Right now, that’s where I’m at. I don’t think it’s gonna happen.”
Blige was previously married to music manager and producer Kendu Isaacs, who had three children from a previous relationship. Back in 2007, Blige said she was embracing being a stepparent and all the responsibility that comes with that role.
“I’ve been a stepmother for three years now and I love them so much,” she told Redbook. “They would ask me questions like, ‘What do we call you?’ I said, ‘Call me Mary, call me what you want. You don’t have to call me Mommy until you’re ready.”
“We don’t get a lot of time with them, but the time we do have, we try to make sure we are walking examples for what their life is going to be,” she added at the time. “It’s not like we’re throwing wild parties or anything like that. We’re homebodies. When we don’t have to work, we’re home or grocery shopping or helping with their homework or just letting them talk us to death.”
She filed for divorce from Isaacs in 2016, which was finalized in 2018. While she was open to being a parent then, as Blige shared, she’s doing just fine without having that role now.