Mary J. Blige went broke after being ordered to pay her ex-husband $30,000 a month in little one help
Mary J. Blige’s marriage officially ended in 2018, and she was ordered to pay her ex-husband $30,000 a month in child support. But Mary J. is not giving up easily. Despite her rough patch, she managed to assert herself and is now stronger than ever.
The RnB music queen has been through a messy divorce with her ex-husband Kendu Isaacs. The circus of separation had captured public attention by the mid to late 2010s. But the beauty of it all is that Blige has come back stronger and better, like the phoenix she is.
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So what can we learn from Mary J.’s experience? Well, for one thing, it’s important to never give up — no matter how bad things seem. Second, it is always important to have a strong support system. Finally, it is important to stay positive and focus on the future.
Mary J. Blige’s Divorce and Court Cases Revealed Many Hidden Things About Their Marriage
The divorce court judge ordered Mary J. Blige to pay her estranged husband, Martin “Kendu” Isaacs, $30,000 a month in spousal support.
She previously filed for divorce from her husband, her manager, in 2016. Blige stated that “irreconcilable differences” were the reason for the separation. They separated in 2015 after 12 years of marriage.
Mary J. Blige finally settled with her ex-husband/manager Martin “Kendu” Isaacs two nights before her scheduled Oscars appearance.
She was nominated for Best Supporting Actress and Best Song in the Movie for her performance in the 2017 Netflix original film Mudbound. Apparently, her expenses from the divorce process were greater than her earnings from the role, according to court documents.
Isaacs had claimed to be “incapacitated” and unable to pay rent without Blige’s financial support. He added that he had “experienced physical manifestations of stress and emotional distress from this affair, leading to his being hospitalized.” This had been discovered when The Blast obtained court documents from the case.
Isaacs had argued in Los Angeles Superior Court that she left him “no source of income” after she fired him as her personal manager, a position he held throughout their marriage.
Blige had reportedly complained about her then-husband Martin Isaacs’ lavish spending habits since the beginning of their marriage.
In May 2017, PEOPLE received additional court documents in which Mary J. Blige had alleged that Isaacs spent more than $420,000 on “travel expenses” involving a woman he had seen outside of marriage.
The documents also revealed that she had also said that Isaacs confiscated her “Grammy and other awards” and refused to return them.
Martin Isaacs originally asked for $130,000 in spousal support a month so he could continue to bask in the “lavish” lifestyle he enjoyed before their divorce filing, which included a private chef, personal trainer sessions and vacations.
So what can we learn from the story of Mary J. Blige? Even though life can be hard at times, we should never give up. We should keep fighting no matter what – because that’s what makes us strong women (and men).
Obviously things didn’t work out between the two – but we have to commend Blige for trying to keep her money as good as possible.
The outcome of the divorce affected Mary J. Blige’s finances and caused her to go broke
In an iHeart Radio special hosted by Angie Martinez, Mary J. Blige performed the lead single “Rent Money” from their 15th studio album, Good Morning Gorgeous, alongside Harlem rapper Dave East. After the performance, she spoke about the inspiration behind the song.
Apparently her painful divorce from Martin “Kendu” Isaacs inspired the song. She had said: “Rental money is [about] when I first got divorced. I had to give up all those alimony payments and I had no more money to give because he spent it all. So I had to go, you know, I had to go on tour and make all the money back to pay the alimony.”
She explained how she had run into money problems because Isaacs had wasted all her money, and when she’d been ordered to cough up a $30,000 monthly alimony check, she’d gone broke trying to pay her rent and other bills.
Because the judge had asked Blige to make backdated payments to Isaacs through September of the previous year, in addition to the $30,000 monthly payments, including attorney’s fees owed by Isaac, her first check to Isaacs rang somewhere in the stadium for $235,000.
During an interview with Vulture, Mary J. Blige spoke about her financial struggles that arose from the divorce proceedings. In addition to $30,000 in spousal support, she owed the IRS $6.5 million in back taxes over eight years.
All of that debt left her earning nothing on the European leg of her tour, along with the film Mudbound, which earned her an Oscar nomination.
You’re not alone if you thought courts always favored the wealthier spouse in divorce, which sadly proved to be Mary J. Blige’s undoing. With the court-ordered alimony, Mary’s finances quickly found themselves in freefall.
It must have almost felt like being asked at gunpoint to hand over the wallet – except it’s legal gunpoint. But Mary found a way to fight back, and with a lot of hard work and dedication, she fought her way back up from rock bottom and eventually became financially stable again.
Without a financial tightrope walk, most people would have panicked or simply stopped trying. But not Maria. She went on, performing all over the world, increasing her brand’s visibility and launching a new album.
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