From dealing with a heartbreaking loss to 9 AM pregnancy cravings, marriage isn’t easy, and Growing Up Hip Hop stars Jojo and Tanice Simmons made the first year of theirs work while stuck in quarantine together.
Fans have watched Jojo grow up with his famous family on Run’s House but being under the microscope of the cameras was new for his wife.
This season, the WEtv show dealt with real topics that touched their marriage, and the mother-of-two admitted she struggled with it. “I think when I first started to film, I would leave the set feeling like, I don’t want to do this anymore, this isn’t for me,” she revealed to Monsters & Critics in this exclusive interview.
While they are considered relationship goals, they attribute most of their success to clear communication, and hope the fans watching “can learn in their own relationships through ours.”
Monster & Critics recently caught up with Jojo and Tanice Simmons over Zoom and they dished on being stuck in quarantine together, their marriage, and Growing Up Hip Hop.
Check out our full interview below:
Monsters & Critics: You celebrated your first year of marriage in quarantine, how was that?
Jojo Simmons: It was hard but we enjoyed it. We did what we could with it. I think it made us understand that not everything is about going out and doing all this crazy stuff, sometimes it’s just really about being with each other and that’s what we learned. It was cool to know that we finished the year even with quarantine. I saw there was a chart for how many people got divorced during quarantine today and it was cool to know that we stuck it out.
M&C: I feel like you two communicate well. Has it always been like this or was this something that had to be learned?
Jojo Simmons: We worked on it for sure.
Tanice Simmons: We still work on it, but yeah, we do try to communicate.
Jojo Simmons: That’s what we teach people, it’s about communication. I got to give credit to her, she’s the one that when sometimes I want to be closed off and not talk, she pushes the narrative of communicating.
M&C: It’s good because I feel you always need one person in the relationship that’s going to speak up or else things tend to go under the rug.
Jojo Simmons: It’s gonna crumble and nobody’s going to last. You hope that when a person like her, and the other person like me is going to want it to work and then want to communicate. You got love there.
M&C: We saw Jojo grow up on Run’s House, but Tanice, the cameras are relatively new for you. Was it hard to adjust to that?
Tanice Simmons: It definitely was hard. I think when I first started to film, I would leave the set feeling like, I don’t want to do this anymore, this is not for me. Did I say the wrong thing, did I do too much? It really was literally something I was like, I’m not doing this ever again. Like I’d rather just do what I do and leave that alone.
I think having conversations with Jojo and his sisters [helped], they’re like just be natural because you can easily fall into the trap of almost changing your personality because you’re on TV, because we watch other reality TV shows, it can kind of make you be someone you’re not. So I think it’s really just important to keep it real whether they like you or not.
M&C: I know you also run your management company, what do you want people to know about Who’s House Entertainment?
Jojo Simmons: I want them to know we’re coming hard this year. We’re pushing every genre, still looking and pushing new artists, we got it all. I look at it, and I’ll be like yeah, the new Def Jam, that’s what we’re gonna be and that’s what I’m tryna build it up to be. It may take a long time, but I’m following the steps to get it done.
Check out other interviews with Growing Up Hip Hop stars Angela Simmons and Stevie J.
Growing Up Hip Hop airs Thursdays at 9/8c on WEtv.