Mary J. Blige On Why She Doesn't Want Kids: 'I Value My Freedom'

Mary J. Bligein an interview with E! Daily Pop, opened up about why having kids wasn't on the table for her.

"I have nieces and nephews forever and I'm always watching how people are scrambling for babysitters," she began. "I don't want to go through that."

She continued, "I like my freedom to go and move and do what I want to do. I don't want to have to tend to someone all the time."

Blige concluded, "Right now, that's where I'm at. But, I don't think it's [having kids] going to happen."

Although she doesn't have her own children, Blige was a stepmother to former husband Kendu Isaac's children– Briana, Nas, and Jordan.

The "Good Morning Gorgeous" singer married Isaac on December 7, 2003, and filed for a divorce 13 years later, citing irreconcilable differences. The divorce was finalized in 2018.

The singer's former stepdaughter, Briana, is a cast member of "Growing Up Hip-hop." She frequently spoke about her estranged relationship with her stepmother, and she hasn't had much contact with Blige since she split from her father.

However, she admitted that Blige was a good stepmother, and they had a cordial relationship.

"Me and Mary, I thought we had, like, a real thing," Latrise said in a video clip. "I love her, and I get it. She's going through things, so she probably can't talk to me right now and I respect that, but to me, it's almost like I lost somebody. I haven't heard from you since you filed for divorce. It almost makes me feel like, 'Did I have something to do with it?' 'cause she's not talking to me. What did I do?"

On her recently released album, "Good Morning Gorgeous," the singer opened up about the pain of divorce and how she has realized the power of self-love. She also hoped that it honestly helped her fans heal as well.

"I got a divorce, you know: OK, Mary, how'd you get through this? Because the world saw you go through all this. It's an assignment for me to do that. It might not be everybody else's assignment. But there are a lot of women who love me, respect me and follow me, and want to know — not the details, but how to get to the other side."

She continued, "I don't think people care about the details too much. They care about the part that they can relate to directly with you. "Me too, girl, me too." They don't even care about how you got on that floor. They know that you were down there — with them. I give them enough to say, "Me, too. I'm hurting too."' 

She added, "I had to speak over myself when I was in a really dark situation. I had to learn how to love myself out of a negative place. And I learned that speaking positive words over yourself, you manifest positive things in your life. And I started to do it, and it started to work. And before you knew it I was all the way out of that negative situation, and Good Morning Gorgeous is here."

Although the album was a culmination of a five-year experience, fans might be getting a follow-up sooner than they think. She told "The Breakfast Club" that she and Dr. Dre have been speaking about creating a new album together.

"That was something I always wanted to do: to do a produced album by Dr. Dre, because everything he does, you know you're going to smash, and you know it's going to be excellent," she said honestly of the new album. "I was like, 'Yo, this is a dream come true for me. I want you to produce an album for me.' And he was like 'Oh my God, it's a dream come true for me!' And then boom, here we are. It's really happening."

Last month, Blige was one of the performers of the Super Bowl. At the event, she belted out her "No More Drama" and "Family Affair." along with Dr. Dre, Eminem, and Kendrick Lamar.

She also spoke to People ahead of the show and expressed how she felt about being the only female artist at the Super Bowl. "I love it."

Blige spoke on how much she loved that her male peers respected her and how she had no problems or issues with any of them in the music industry.

She also gushed about working with Dr. Dre on the 2022 Super Bowl halftime show. She said, "Dr. Dre is one of the most important people in hip-hop, and as a producer, as a writer, as a rapper. He's just the one, you know?"

Mary J Blige is currently one of the prominent cast members of Starz's "Power Book II: Ghost" and will reprise her role in subsequent seasons and other possible "Power" spin-offs.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jr1CRMkBVs8