Mary J. Blige is still tangled up in a messy divorce with Kendu Isaacs, who is in pursuit of a fat alimony check from the R&B legend. Unfortunately for Isaacs and his legal team, they won't be able to leverage her Oscar nomination for Mudbound as proof that she's rolling in dough.
TheBlast.com got their hands on some legal documents filed by Blige ahead of her upcoming divorce trial that shed light on her current financial situation. The singer discloses that despite landing Oscar nominations for Best Supporting Actress and Best Original Song in Mudbound she ended up spending way more in expenses than what she was paid for the role. In fact, she never accepted the role for money but to further "support her brand."
Blige goes on to claim that most of her earnings these days comes from touring, but even that has changed since she is a legacy artist and "there is no market for her to embark on a major world tour every year.” The documents also say that while she and Isaacs were together, they accrued $12 million in debt, which she has unfairly been forced to pay off herself since Isaacs hasn't been able to secure a job. According to the report, she says he views her as his “bank.”
Blige has been locked in a bitter money dispute with Isaacs since July 2016 when she initially filed for divorce. In June 2017, she was ordered to pay $30,000 in temporary spousal support since Isaacs was also fired as her manager.
In an interview with Variety, Blige said the divorce has taken a toll on her emotional well-being. “I’m living. I’m not happy about a lot of things," she confessed. "I thought someone loved me, right? Turns out, he was a con artist and he didn’t, and now he’s coming after me for all my money. When you come out of something like that, you realize you were never the one. There was someone else that was his queen. I got played. I got suckered."
Blige and Isaacs will face off in court in March.
