Mary J. Blige has shared that she was forced to tour to make her alimony payments to her ex-husband, Kendu Isaacs.
The star is currently promoting her new single, “Rent Money.”
Speaking to Angie Martinez, she shared why she was inspired to write the track.
“‘Rent Money’ is about when I first got the divorce—I had to give up all this alimony and I didn’t have no more money to give because he had spent it all,” she said.
“So I had to go and, you know, I had to go on tour and make all the money back to pay the alimony, and I didn’t have no money to pay my rent and all this other stuff. But it’s also a metaphor. I didn’t have my soul. Like, I was just drained of everything. So it was time for somebody to pay.”
She added, “Sometimes you just feel like somebody gotta pay. And I was very angry then—when I made that song. I was very angry. I was very angry and I was like, ‘rent due. Period.'”
On the track, Blige sings: “Look now my rent money due / I spent everything f—kin ‘with you, oh /They say you win some, you win some you lose /All I got is rent money due / f—kin ‘with you.”
Blige was married to Isaacs for 12 years, and they divorced in 2016. In court documents, Blige claimed Isaacs spent more than $420,000 during their marriage on “travel charges” with a woman he was having an affair with. He also spent her money on several other women.
Despite his infidelity, in 2020, a judge ordered Blige to pay $30,000 per month in temporary spousal support to Isaacs. Her ex-husband initially requested $130,000 a month in spousal support. The judge also ordered Blige to make retroactive spousal support payments dating back to when she first filed for divorce and his attorney fees.
