Swizz Beatz ex-wife Mashonda sat down with Vibe for her first post divorce interview and talks about the aftermath of her open Twitter letter to Alicia Keys and how and when Swizz admitted he was having an affair.
What about that Twitter message you sent her [Alicia Keys]?
I did not expect that letter to do what it did, I swear. I was in a state of insanity when I wrote that letter. I sat on the bed and I was like, ‘I can't take this shit anymore’ and lost my mind. I sat and wrote it all out on paper first, and then I tweeted it. The next morning it was on every blog and I was like ‘Ah! Oh my God, what the fuck did I do?!’ It was not intended to be that. And I kind of felt bad.
You’ve mentioned in the past that Swizz repeatedly denied having an affair with Alicia. Did he ever fully come out and admit to it?
My husband admitted to having his affair on Mothers Day 2008, six months after I found out. I didn't sleep for a whole year. I had to take pills to sleep because I'd wake up in the middle of the night crying. I couldn't even look at my son some days because I didn't have the strength and I never wanted him to feel my bad energy. It was a battle. They are just now going public, but this has been going on for a very long time. I refused to really break it down for people to understand because there was no way I could go around not making [Swizz and Alicia] look extra crazy and I didn't want to put that out there for my son. I didn't want him to see his father as a monster. But the shit is deep.
What was the last thing you remember doing to keep the marriage in tact?
I did everything I could do, but I knew there was no working it out when he admitted his affair to me… he was happy about it. After lying about it for so long and finally admitting it I was like ‘I can't take it no more!’ In the back of my mind I was like, ‘I have to fight for my family, this is my son's father. We were supposed to grow old together, we were supposed to raise this baby together, we were supposed to do all these things, I'm fighting for my fucking husband. I don't care who he's dating, I don't care how much money she's got, I'm fighting for my husband.’ And then I realized… I can't fight for him… he doesn't want to be with me. I'm not going to win this one.
Read the rest of Mashonda's Vibe interview here.
