“Let’s stay together” isn’t just a song. It’s a mantra for my “Renaissance Man” guests, who literally wrote the book on preserving your relationship through kids, infidelity and fame. RaaShaun Casey, otherwise known as “Breakfast Club” co-host DJ Envy, and his better half, Gia, spilled all the details that went into their new tome, “Real Life, Real Love: Life lessons on Joy, Pain & the Magic That Holds Us Together.”
And the high school sweethearts were incredibly transparent and vulnerable, even addressing Envy’s high-profile cheating scandal when he strayed with a reality star about a decade ago — and how they got through it with divine intervention.
“God intervened in our relationship in a very significant way,” Gia told me. “And one of the people that stepped in on his behalf was my best friend, Rashid — and another person was Tyrese [Gibson].”
“Both of them came into our lives and said that God sent them to save our relationship,” Gia continued, adding that the couple really didn’t know the singer-actor except for the occasional work event. “There were a lot of things that happened in that story that I couldn’t chalk up to coincidence. I knew that God was speaking to me through people. And ultimately, I was convinced that that was his will, that we stay together, continue to raise our family … Which is exactly what we did.”
Envy noted that Rashid was no fan of his. And the feeling was mutual.
“He thought the relationship was toxic, which it was. So the fact that he flew in [to meet with us and] say, ‘Hey, God sent me to save your relationship,'” resonated with him.
As for Tyrese, Envy assumed he was reaching out to promote a project. Instead, Tyrese told him he was praying for them.
The parents of six stayed together, rebuilt their marriage and now they’ve turned their hardships into part of their identity. And with their book now out, they’re dropping saucy revelations, like Gia admitting she has faked orgasms.
“We could talk about everything else. Why not talk about relationships?,” Envy said. “We also did it because we wanted to let people know that they’re not the only ones going through things that we’re going through. You know, people post on Instagram [so their] marriages and lives [look] perfect, but it’s not,” he said.
It’s tough to turn your back on a history like theirs. They met as students at St. Francis Prep in Queens and became serious right away.
“When I met RaaShaun, I met him as DJ Shrimp and he was DJing sweet 16s,” she noted. And when they first encountered each other in the halls at school, he was trying to get her attention.
“I thought that he was cute. There was just something special about him. But I just kind of wanted to settle myself in first. But he was relentless, and that relentlessness paid off,” said Gia.
Before Shrimp became Envy, he was just RaaShaun, marveling over his neighbor Ernesto’s BMW 3 Series.
“I thought he was selling drugs. I didn’t know what he was doing.” He said that one day, Ernesto invited him over. “After school, his mom opened the door and said [he] was downstairs. I go downstairs and I see records, cassette players in turntables, and I’m like, ‘Well, what do you do?’ He was like, ‘I’m a DJ.'” Ernesto’s nom de turntable? The famous DJ Clue.
Clue sparked something in Envy, whose father is a retired cop and mother worked for an insurance company. After witnessing his father complain about his job, Clue’s career “stuck with me, because I was like, I’m never going to be in a position where I have to go to work … So when I started DJing, I don’t want to say it’s an easy job, but I love it. I would do it for free. I enjoy it. I enjoy talking on the radio.”
From Gia’s perspective, as Envy’s success grew, so did his ego.
“That’s when he developed a persona and a bravado about him. So when he was out in the street, he was Envy. But when he was home, he was RaaShaun, so I never knew him as DJ Envy. He was always just my baby, my boo, my man and then my husband. But DJ Envy, I was a lot more unfamiliar with.”
In the book, Gia opens up about being attacked when she was 15, when she was viscously slashed on her face and inner thigh.
“[In the book,] there’s actually a picture of the wound before I was stitched up. When I got to the hospital, the doctors and the anesthesiologist, they didn’t want me to see the wound … They were scared that I was going to go [into] shock.” But before she was stitched up, her friend took a picture of the of the gruesome cuts.
They use their tome to talk about their children, their family mission statement and how they are setting their kids up for success. But I wanted to know how they keep their love alive after all these years. What’s a perfect romantic evening?
“I can make something up that sounds amazing and otherworldly, but the truth is: locking the door, getting naked, cuddling and watching Netflix until we’re done binge watching, and we can share some intimate time without the kids barging in. That’s a dream date night,” said Gia. Though they do love a night at Tao Downtown or Brooklyn Chop House.
As for their favorite fictional couple? Envy went with Claire and Cliff Huxtable, but Gia said Marty and Wendy Byrde on “Ozark.” And that isn’t an endorsement of money laundering for a cartel — it’s “because they have each other’s backs.”
That sounds familiar.
Detroit native Jalen Rose is a member of the University of Michigan’s iconoclastic Fab Five, who shook up the college hoops world in the early ’90s. He played 13 seasons in the NBA, before transitioning into a media personality. Rose is currently an analyst for “NBA Countdown” and “Get Up,” and co-host of “Jalen & Jacoby.” He executive produced “The Fab Five” for ESPN’s “30 for 30” series, is the author of the best-selling book, “Got To Give the People What They Want,” a fashion tastemaker, and co-founded the Jalen Rose Leadership Academy, a public charter school in his hometown.
ncG1vNJzZmimqaW8tMCNnKamZ2Jlf3N7j21ma3Bfmbdusc2vsGavmZuybrPImmStnZyhequty56lZqqfqLJurcGorK1lo5bDqrrGZquhnZmneq6t0augmp%2BVZA%3D%3D