Jeannie Mai Says She's Taking Jeezy Divorce 'Day By Day,' Shares How Their Daughter Will Spend Holidays
Jeannie Mai is picking up the pieces after her divorce.
On Monday, the Raid the Cage host sits down with Jennifer Hudson, and opens up about her life two-months after her husband, Jeezy, filed for divorce after two years of marriage.
"I was going through things and my marriage ended in divorce," Mai says on The Jennifer Hudson Show. "It was kinda hard and I'm dealing with it day by day."
Mai shares that though the 46-year-old "Put On" rapper's filing was initially a surprise, she's in a better space and healing.
"I think I'm doing better now," Mai, 44, says. "I think at the time, when I found out at the same time as the rest of the world that my marriage was ending in divorce, I was gutted. Today it's about picking up the pieces, it's about discovering me and being a mom to the best blessing my little girl."
She adds, "Even though this year I met the most broken version of me, I also met the strongest version."
Mai and Jeezy married in 2021 and welcomed their daughter, Monaco Mai Jenkins, in January 2022.
"Monaco is everything, she's everything, she's just my whole world," Mai gushes over her daughter to Hudson. "I think we're present and we're alive right now, but I think every parent can tell you that when you have a baby, you get a chance to be born again. This entire world has become a whole different place to me with different colors and sights and sounds because of Monaco. So reliving my life and reparenting myself through this little girl has been the greatest gift of my life."
Mai and Jenkins' little girl is already up on her culture, with her mom sharing that she's speaking both English and Vietnamese. And in order to prepare for the holidays, Mai is giving her a gift every day while also teaching her the value of money. Additionally, Monaco will have a holiday milestone this year, as she spends her first Christmas in her mom's hometown of San Jose, California.
"Monaco is going to experience all of the cultures that the melting pot San Jose has," Mai shares. "I want Monaco to feel where I came from and to understand that my parents immigrated here to the Bay, straight from Vietnam and there's so much life that came from that. We had 15 people living in a three bedroom home and she's going to be in that home. She's gonna see the bedroom that I grew up in, and she's gonna watch the stars that are still glued to the ceiling from the '90s that I have there. And she's just gonna love seeing the history of how the family came together. I love that."
Mai says that her daughter will also have time with her father this holiday season.
"And we're gonna make sure that she gets time with her dad as well," she adds. "So that she's really able to experience both sides of her family."
Mai's appearance on The Jennifer Hudson Show comes days after Jeezy -- born Jay Wayne Jenkins -- filed new documents claiming that Mai is "gatekeeping" their daughter. In the documents obtained by ET, the "Go Crazy" rapper asked a judge for a hearing to set "clearly defined" temporary legal and physical custody rights amid their divorce.
In a filed response to the divorce petition, Mai strongly suggests that Jeezy engaged in infidelity during their marriage, and she "reserves the right to amend this response to add additional grounds for divorce."
In November, Jeezy did his first and only interview where he addressed his and Mai's split.
"This has not been an easy journey. I can tell you that I'm sad. I can tell you that I'm disappointed. I can tell you that I'm uneasy," Jeezy said during a tell-all interview with actress Nia Long. "But God has put me on a different path, and that path is going to entail for me to take care of myself and to love myself and to be in the best situation that I can thrive as someone who's been through all of the things that I've been through."
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