Comedienne Mo’Nique said she “grew out” of her open marriage because extramarital sex was jeopardizing her relationship with husband Sidney Hicks.
“I didn’t want to sacrifice that just for a lay,” she said in an in-depth interview with The Hollywood Reporter.
Mo’Nique, 55, revealed her open marriage in past interviews over the years. She said she agreed to the non-traditional arrangement because divorce was never an option for her.
“We have an agreement that we’ll always be honest, and if sex happens with another person, that’s not a deal breaker for us. That’s not something where we’ll have to say, ‘Oh God, we’ve got to go to divorce court because you cheated on me,’ because we don’t cheat.”
In 2006 Mo’Nique told Essence that people “didn’t understand” their arrangement. “They thought it was about swinging and orgies, and then there were individuals who are vehement about God, and they were bringing God into their opinions. People lost their minds, and the criticism has never let up.”
“I wanted to continue to see the gentlemen that I was seeing, and I felt comfortable telling my best friend [Hicks]. I’m grateful he taught me I had to play fair,” she said.
Mo’Nique said they eventually ended their extramarital affairs with other people.
She told THR: “Life began to happen. I began to see a strength I had never seen before. He loved me at my worst. I didn’t want to sacrifice that just for a lay. So I grew out of that.”
Mo’Nique and Sidney have been married since 2006, and share 17-year-old twin sons Jonathan and David Hicks.
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