Yesterday while browsing my favorite blogs looking for content to post, I happened upon this post by Style Razzi.

The post quoted excerpts from an Essence.com interview with Lisa Wu-Hartwell’s husband, Ed. In it, he discusses his relationship with Lisa and Keith Sweat’s sons Justin and Jordan:

“Me and my sons have a great relationship. I tell everyone I have three sons. They call me dad; I never say my stepkids, they are my sons.”

But what was even more bizarre than a man claiming another man’s sons was Ed’s response to the question, “Do you have a good relationship with their father, Keith Sweat?”:

Not at all. The reason is because [when I started dating] Lisa there was a lot that I had to stop from happening. I had to lay down the law, man to man. Have I tried to work out some things and put our differences to the side for the sake of the kids? Absolutely. I don’t like to play games.

I don’t know Keith Sweat that well, but I was certain that he didn’t take kindly to Hartwell’s implications that he had to be put in his place. So just to be sure, I reached out to a source close to Sweat’s camp to inquire if Ed Hartwell really did lay down the law to Keith Sweat.

Here’s what the source, who asked not to identified said:

I don’t understand how anybody can call anybody out or put their foot down to the custodial parent who has all the rights! What would he give a basis to lay down the law based on? How does Keith respond to that? Ed Hartwell has no rights over Keith’s kids. None! Zero! He has no merit. [Hartwell] gets to see the kids because he happens to be married to Keith’s ex-wife.

Here is Keith’s statement: Keith is raising his kids to be normal, well-adjusted young men. He is busy raising his children 24/7. He is totally responsible for all aspects of his kids’ lives: education, health, welfare, insurance, college education. He chooses the clothes, he chooses where they vacation. He drops them off and picks them up from school every day. The courts gave him unilateral rights regarding his children. They didn’t give anybody else rights. If Lisa wants to take the boys out of Atlanta, she has to get permission from Keith. She picks them up on the 1st and the 3rd weekend of every month. Those are her rights. Ed has NO rights.

In this situation, Keith is going to be the bigger person. Keith has the fastest growing syndicated radio show now in 42 markets. He has two television shows coming out. He performs in concerts. What is Ed doing? I hear him and Lisa say he played in the NFL for 7 years. Is that factually correct? He played for the Falcons for three years and he was cut from there, cut from Cincinnati, cut from Oakland. He was injured for three years. So did he play for seven years? Keith has been in the business for 21 years, but he’s been singing since he was a little boy. Keith doesn’t try to inflate his career or himself.

My source reminded me of our last conversation when he told me that if the show lasted long enough, we would see the real Lisa Wu come out. Apparently, it is rumored that Lisa strikes Kim either on camera or on the set of the Reunion show which airs on Nov. 25. “You’re seeing the real Lisa [on the Reunion show],” he said.

He indicated that Keith is sympathetic to Lisa despite the fact that Lisa and Hartwell can’t keep Keith Sweat’s name out of their mouths. “Keith is not going to get in the gutter with them,” said the source. “Keith is actually trying to save her as the mother of his kids. Because his kids will be affected by all of this.” According to the insider, he has never seen Lisa Wu do drugs, and he could see why an accusation of that sort might make Lisa upset enough to go after Kim.

Although the source didn’t indicate this, Lisa’s violent tendencies might be part of the reason why she lost custody of her sons to Sweat. “Lisa does not handle very well any kind of criticism,” said the source. “Lisa has made these statements about flipping over sofas and beating people up. We really don’t have to say or do anything at this point. Lisa is Lisa. The facts speak for themselves.”

Photos: Myspace.com (Sweat) and Freddy O