Rapper Trina has opened up about a deeply agonizing experience: the miscarriage of her child with Lil Wayne and not being able to grieve properly because of her career
The 45-year-old appeared on the Tamron Hall Show to discuss her first book, “Da Baddest,” and some of the grief she’s still dealing with.
In a raw and emotional interview, Trina revealed how the stigma around female rappers getting pregnant at that time in the industry forced her to grieve in silence, compounding the emotional toll of the experience.
Lil Wayne and Trina dated from 2005 to 2007 and were even briefly engaged.
Reflecting on the pressures of being a successful woman in rap, Trina shared how, during that period, there was immense pressure to maintain a certain image, and pregnancy simply didn’t fit the mold.
“This was at the time in my career where, at a label, you just cannot say you’re having a baby. It’s just a no. It’s not part of it, and you’re scared. You don’t tell anybody, and you don’t know what to do,” Trina said.
“I would cry on the road, I would cry on the tour bus, I would cry in a hotel, but I would have to hit the stage that night. I would have to get on a plane that morning. I would have to do whatever I was doing,” she explained. “So it was something that you kind of like swept under the rug.”
She continued, “I was so young, and I was just, I was hurt. I was sad inside. I just [started] questioning things that I believe in and why me. You know, I didn’t understand. Like, was it something that I did wrong? Like, why? I blame myself so much for it. ”
Trina’s pain did not end with her miscarriage. In 2013, tragedy struck again when she lost her brother, Wilbrent Bain Jr., who was murdered in a shooting; he was just 19 years old. She admitted that the death of her brother was a watershed moment in her life, leaving her feeling utterly disconnected from the outside world.
Da Baddest was released earlier this month via Simon & Schuster.
