Precious star Mo’Nique has never shied away from divulging details about her marriage with Sidney Hicks, her husband of 17 years. But now she is opening up about why she is rethinking her open marriage agreement.
In a recent interview, the Oscar winner said that her husband, who is the mother to her 17-year-old twin sons is “the best manager that I’ve ever had, and I’ve had the big boys,” adding that she and her husband have been practically inseparable since they wed in 2006.
When they married, they were both candid about being in an open relationship, which she dished in her podcast Mo’Nique & Sidney Open Relationship. But now she is changing her tune.
“Life began to happen. I began to see a strength I had never seen before. He loved me at my worst,” she said. “I didn’t want to sacrifice that just for a lay. So I grew out of that.”
The Queens of Comedy actress, whose latest Netflix special is set to debut April 4, first spoke up at her open marriage during an Essence interview the same year she wed. Ten years later, during an interview with The New York Times, she doubled down on her choice to be in an open relationship, stating that “people didn’t understand.”
“They thought it was about swinging and orgies, and then there were individuals who are vehement about God, and they were bringing God into their opinions,” she said at the time. “People lost their minds, and the criticism has never let up.”
She further added that the open marriage was her partner’s idea. “Sidney had this one thing he had to teach me, and that was reciprocity. He said, ‘If you can have that, it’s only fair that I can have that, too.’ … I wanted to continue to see the gentlemen that I was seeing, and I felt comfortable telling my best friend [Hicks]. I’m grateful he taught me I had to play fair.”
On the comedian’s podcast, her husband agreed that the arrangement “is not going to change the dynamic of our relationship, because I’m in love with this woman.”
He continued: “I’ve been involved with someone for 33 years of my life, since we were kids,” he said at the time. “I’ve known her longer than I haven’t known her, so when you start saying to yourself the spirit that you came into this universe with is the spirit that you’re gonna exit this world with … are you going to be yourself through having an open conversation and an open dialogue and an open relationship?”
