Cheryl “Salt” James, one of the members of the iconic rap group, Salt-N-Pepa, has admitted that she demanded that her relationship with her ex-husband not be featured when she and her bandmate, Sandra “Pepa” Denton, were approached by Lifetime with the opportunity to create a biopic about their career.
“It’s exciting, and it’s something that Pep’s been wanting to do for years,” James said. “I’ve been afraid to do it because it’s so personal, but Pep ain’t having it. She’s like, ‘We have to tell our stories.’ So here we are.”
The rapper divorced music producer Gavin Wray after 28 together. They dated for ten years before tying the knot in 2000. They later quietly divorced in 2018. James said her relationship with her own father was also off-limits.
“The reservations that I had was definitely the story being as true to life as possible. You can tell your story and then by the time it goes through a writer, director, and a movie company, sometimes it’s not exactly what you want to portray. Also when you’re telling your story, there are other people in your life that are involved you have to be… I felt like I had to be delicate about incorporating other people’s stories in my story,” she explained.
“They’ve been, in the past, delicate relationships. Nothing so much with myself or with Pep, because it’s our story,” she added.
James and Wray wed in 2000 and quietly divorced in 2018 following divorce proceedings that lasted close to four years.
Salt-N-Pepa premieres on January 23 on Lifetime.
