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Niecy Nash Talks Marriage, Comes Out as 'Free' on Red Table Talk
"She is the most beautiful soul I have ever met in my life," the actress said of her wife, Jessica Betts.
Niecy Nash and her wife Jessica Betts join Jada Pinkett Smith, Willow Smith, and Adrienne Banfield-Norris on the latest episode of Facebook Watch's hit talk show Red Table Talk!
The series is known for bringing together the Smiths' multigenerational perspectives "to create a safe space for healing through provocative conversations on culture-defining topics." In the season four premiere, entitled "I'd Never Been With A Woman Before!" Nash reveals how she went from two marriages with men to falling in love with her wife.
Nash gushes over Betts in the episode. "I never want this person to not be in my life," she said, going on to suggest that she never really questioned her sexuality, just that she fell in love. "I didn't even know what I'm doing. I just know that this is the most beautiful soul I've met in my life and you mine."
In the meantime, Nash jokes that she's still waiting on her "welcome packet" into the LGBTQ+ community.
The actor shared the news of their marriage with the world last August through social media, surprising fans who never knew Nash was anything but straight. "[My marriage] has absolutely nothing to do with gender and it has everything to do with her soul," Nash said shortly after the reveal. "She is the most beautiful soul I have ever met in my life."
Though many people (even her own children) assumed Nash was "strictly dickly," the actor clarifies that she didn't plan on coming out of the closet or anything — she simply found love.
"A lot of people had said at the beginning, 'Niecy Nash has finally come out.' And I said, 'Well, come out of where?' Because I wasn't in anywhere. I wasn't living a sexually repressed life...I loved the boys I was with when I was with them. And now this is who I love. I wasn't living a lie or trying to make myself like a man. I mean, I liked 'em. I liked 'em real good but now I'm on the new new. If I had to label myself in this moment, I would label myself with the term 'free.'"
Nash even opens up about her past marriages, saying her first was a "slow dance with death," and after 17 years she garnered the strength to leave "for my children. Because I wanted them to see what real love looked like."
Now she's found it in Betts.
"I’ve dated men all my life, too. Married a couple of 'em. But it was the first time in my life I had ever felt fully seen. And it changed me."
Watch Niecy's episode of Red Table Talk on Facebook Watch below!
Taylor Henderson is a PRIDE.com contributor. This proud Texas Bama studied Media Production/Studies and Sociology at The University of Texas at Austin, where he developed his passions for pop culture, writing, and videography. He's absolutely obsessed with Beyoncé, mangoes, and cheesy YA novels that allow him to vicariously experience the teen years he spent in the closet. He's also writing one!
Taylor Henderson is a PRIDE.com contributor. This proud Texas Bama studied Media Production/Studies and Sociology at The University of Texas at Austin, where he developed his passions for pop culture, writing, and videography. He's absolutely obsessed with Beyoncé, mangoes, and cheesy YA novels that allow him to vicariously experience the teen years he spent in the closet. He's also writing one!
