Mo’Nique and her husband of nearly 10 years, Sydney Hicks have a marriage based on different rules. They have an open marriage which allows either of them to have sex with other partners as long as they are open and honest with each other about it.
According to Essence Magazine, the couple recently did a podcast where she cleared up rumours that her husband was the one who suggested this and that she’s only doing it to keep him. In fact, the Precious actress says it was her idea because she wanted to keep seeing someone she had a relationship with previously…
“A lot of people have asked what does it mean. Initially, when I asked for it, it was because I wanted to continue to see the gentlemen that I was seeing, and I felt comfortable telling my best friend…so when I sat down and said this is what I want initially it was because I wanted to still have sex with who I was seeing and I didn’t want it to be where I was keeping anything from my best friend. That’s how it initially started, and when I tell you the conversations that we’ve had, it has taken me to a different place where I’m not even thinking of another man sexually, but still open to it.”
She goes on to say that this is common practice among many couples and that she feels that she’s been unfairly judged because of her physique.
“When you pull it up, and you [look] up celebrities in open marriage and you see Will and Jada, whoever the person is the author of that article they say well we can understand why they would be in a open marriage they’re both beautiful people. When they start talking about Brad and Angelina, they said, ‘Well we can understand—they’re both beautiful people. The moment it got to my damn picture with my husband they said, ‘Oh, we hope Mo’Nique not gon’ let him just use her like that, because society looks at me and they see a woman that looks like [she] couldn’t possibly have a man that looks like that if there was not something else involved in it…she’s gonna let this man do anything he wants to do because she’s famous and she has money and now she can have whatever she wants, but she’s gonna let the man use her and abuse her. No one knew it wasn’t Sidney’s idea to have an open marriage. It was mine. I want to say that again. It was not Sidney’s idea to have an open marriage; it was mine.”
She also states that now that they’re older with kids, they don’t have as much time for other relationships as they did in the past. So now this is how they define their open marriage.
“So it’s not just an open relationship from a sexual standpoint, it’s an open relationship in terms of dialogue that you’re having with your spouse, your mate, your sons, your daughters, your mothers, your father, because we always hear ‘be someone important’ or ‘be yourself’ but that’s only when its politically correct—when you’ve fallen into the boundaries of what people expect you to be as opposed to you being yourself when it is against the preverbal norm but what we find is against the norm is really the norm.
You can read more from the couple here.
What are your thoughts on open marriages? Would you be comfortable with that arrangement in your marriage or relationship? Do you think it helps strengthen or weaken a couple? Tell us your thoughts below.
