Key Takeaways
- Arionne Curry joins Love & Marriage: Huntsville Season 12, giving Martell Holt’s former mistress and the mother of his son Maverick a chance to challenge the cast’s long-running narrative about her.
- Curry’s arrival sparks confrontations over her relationship with Martell, his friendship with Destiny Payton, and accusations of infidelity, family issues, and the cast members’ children.
- The season also follows Martell’s new builder’s license, Marsau and LaTisha Scott’s property loss, Maurice and Kimmi Scott’s concerns about Maurice’s son, and Nell Fletcher’s caregiving duties ahead of the September 12 premiere on OWN.
Love & Marriage: Huntsville has finally revealed the “surprise introduction” threatening to blow up Martell Holt’s inner circle: Arionne Curry. OWN’s extended Season 12 trailer brings Martell’s former mistress and the mother of his son, Maverick, directly into the cast’s orbit ahead of the season premiere—and it takes only minutes for years of buried resentment to erupt.
Martell makes Curry’s position clear as he introduces her to the group. “This is my girl. This is Maverick’s mom,” he says. “She’s a lot better than what people have said.”
The welcome is anything but easy. Curry is immediately asked what made her pursue a relationship with a married man, while another cast member argues she didn’t make the vows Martell broke. Curry appears ready to face the scrutiny, telling the group, “I’m trying to let that go and get to know y’all.”
Her arrival gives Love & Marriage: Huntsville viewers something they have never had: Curry participating in the story instead of being discussed from outside it. Her years-long relationship with Martell became a major part of the breakdown of his marriage to former cast member Melody Shari.
Curry previously said that the show and its cast had pushed a one-sided version of her life while denying her the opportunity to respond. “It’s only one narrative out, and it’s not even the correct narrative,” she said.
Now, Curry gets that opportunity—and immediately begins asking questions of her own. “They was doing their homework about me for years,” she says in the trailer. “So, my turn.”
Her presence also puts pressure on Martell’s close friendship with Destiny Payton, as cast members revisit rumors about whether the two ever crossed a line. Martell repeatedly denies having romantic interest in Destiny, but as the trailer says, “If I had a million dollars to bet, have Martell and Destiny messed around, my money is going towards that.”
The tension eventually turns vicious. One heated exchange includes accusations that a woman tolerated Martell, his ex-wife, and “all the other women he slept with.”
Another cast member fires back, “I’m not Michelle Obama. When you go low, I don’t go high. You go low, I go to hell.”
By the trailer’s final moments, an argument involving the cast members’ children ends with someone being called a “concubine” as another voice warns, “Get out the way, because this is about to get ugly.”
Curry’s arrival is not the season’s only pressure point. Martell celebrates earning his builder’s license while clashing over who is the strongest contractor in the room.
Marsau and LaTisha Scott approach their 20th wedding anniversary while dealing with the loss of their first residential investment property. Maurice and Kimmi Scott confront concerns about Maurice’s son’s future, while Nell Fletcher adjusts to becoming a full-time caregiver for her aging father.
Created by Carlos King, Love & Marriage: Huntsville began as a series about successful Black couples pursuing real estate development in Alabama, and eventually became something very, very different.
Love & Marriage: Huntsville premieres Saturday, September 12, at 8 p.m. ET/PT on OWN.
