Subscribe
Hellobeautiful Featured Video
CLOSE

We brought you Part 1 of the interview that First Lady of Turks and Caicos, Lisa Raye did with essence.com, here’s Part 2 of that interview.

ESSENCE.COM: There were some suggestive magazine photos that resurfaced which gave the [Turks and Caicos] country more ammunition to declare that you weren’t fit to be a First Lady. Did your husband ever defend you?

LISARAYE: I’m the First Lady and I knew that I could no longer do those kinds of photo shoots. They were old photographs from a few years ago and I’m an actress, so I know why that magazine chose to run them again. Still, I felt like when Michael asked me if I posed for that magazine he could have shown a bit more support and spoken on my behalf and said, “My wife would not do this.” When he questioned me, I said, “Are you serious? Might this be the same series of the photos and posters you framed and proudly said, ‘This is my wife?'” To not ask me as your wife before questioning me accusingly of something like that really hurt. Then people want to say no other First Lady would do this. Well, neither did I because it was done years ago, and quite frankly, the other First Ladies couldn’t pull that off if they wanted to.

 

GALLERY: Wildest Celebrity Divorces

 

ESSENCE.COM: How has your daughter, Kaienja “Kai” Pace, been holding up?

LISARAYE: My daughter is unfocused now. She was attending the University of Buckingham. She is back here in California and trying to find her way. That’s incredibly courageous of her and I’m disappointed in the lack of a responsibility on his part as a stepfather. My daughter spent her first six months before she started school with Michael while I worked in California. I was trying to help them establish a bond and promote family with him and it wasn’t easy. No one should be subjected to this when your intention was always to do well. This fairy tale has turned into a nightmare.

For more of this interview go here.

For 2024’s iteration of MadameNoire and HelloBeautiful’s annual series Women to Know, we knew we wanted to celebrate the people who help make the joys of film and television possible. To create art is to create magic. This year, we spotlight Hollywood Executive’s changing the face of cinema.