Listen Live
HotSpot ATL Featured Video
CLOSE

Mary J. Blige continues her “bad b***h fall” domination!

The Grammy-winning singer and Oscar nominee stunned on the November digital issue of SELF Magazine rocking a white and black Chromat bodysuit, Alain Mikli sunglasses and Aquazurra netted booties.

YOU BETTER WERK MARY!!!

Mary J. Blige Self Magazine

Source: Jason Kim, SELF / Jason Kim, SELF

Here, looking fresh-faced in MAC Cosmetics, she talks about what her biggest form of self-care is prayer and staying “very well hydrated:

 

 

Blige also opened up and got real about her past drug addiction, being a symbol of hope for others to heal and her ex-husband.

On her role as a symbol of hope, and her ability to help others heal: “It happened because every night that I’m at these shows, I have at least four women say [to me], ‘You got me through the divorce that I was going through. That Strength of a Woman album? We was going through [your] divorce with you’…. I had to go through that in order to serve.”

On her ex-husband: “Well, when I look back, I see that we all want what we want. And we want it to be the way we want it to be,” she says. “I wanted a savior. I’d been hurting so long, and so much, and so bad.” As for his role in breaking her drug habit, she now admits “he did not deserve that credit.”

On the roots of her battle with substance abuse: “We numb ourselves with drugs and alcohol and people and shopping and shit, to cover up what’s really going on inside,” she says. “You’re taking drugs so you can go out and feel courageous, or go out and feel beautiful or whatever. You’re doing it to cover up something.”

On when she realized she needed to make a change and begin her recovery journey: “I’ve seen visions of what I would look like if I kept doing drugs,” she says, adding that there were also some nights when her reality may have mirrored those perhaps prophetic visualizations closely. “If I saw myself almost dying, or if I almost died, or almost O.D.’d, why would I do that again?”

 

She also opened up about the sexual abuse she endured as a child and how now her focus is about protecting that little girl.

But right now it’s about me and little Mary. It’s like that’s my baby, my little girl. She needs my help…and I’m not going to ever let anybody hurt her again. She needs to live, she needs to play. She doesn’t mind her life being used to help someone else…. But I have to take care of her,” she said.

Mary J. is one strong Black woman…and we’re all better for it.

Read her SELF interview in its entirety here

RELATED NEWS:

Mary J. Blige Debuts ‘Bad B***h Fall’ In A Fur…And We’re Here For it!

Oscar Roundup: ‘Get Out’ Wins Big, Mary J. Blige, Common And Andra Day Kill It On Stage

Lizzo Is 100 Percent That B***h On The October Cover Of Elle

Mary J. Blige Stuns On SELF Cover: ‘Prayer & Staying Very Well Hydrated Are My Self-Care’  was originally published on hellobeautiful.com