Mary J Blige’s Money Got so Funny She Couldn’t Pay the Rent: Her Ex Got it All in Divorce

NEW ORLEANS, LA – JULY 06: Mary J. Blige attends the 2018 Essence Festival presented by Coca-Cola at Ernest N. Morial Convention Center on July 6, 2018 in New Orleans, Louisiana. (Photo by Paras Griffin/Getty Images for Essence)

ately Mary J. Blige has been back in the spotlight because of her starring role on “Power Book ll: Ghost” and of course, her rousing appearance in Sunday’s Super Bowl hip-hop/R&B Halftime show. And lest we forget she just released her latest album, Good Morning Gorgeous.

Blige recently performed “Rent Money” from the album with rapper Dave East, on an iHeart Radio special. Host Angie Martinez, who has a long history with the performer got some really candid comments from her about the inspiration for the song.

It seems things got really bad for Mary emotionally and financially between her ex-husband Kendu Isaacs. Divorcing Isaacs, who was also her manager, took every penny she had … to the point where she couldn’t pay her rent!

“I had to give up all this alimony, and I didn’t have no more money to give because he had spent it all,” she explained. “So, I had to go, you know, I had to go on tour, and make all the money back to pay the alimony.”

The singer/actress says her money got so funny that she didn’t have the resources to keep a roof over her head.

“I didn’t have no money to pay my rent and all this other stuff,” she continued. “But it’s also a metaphor like, I didn’t have my soul. I was just drained of everything. So it was time for somebody to pay; sometimes you just feel like somebody gotta pay.”

By the way, after their divorce, Issacs claimed that he “has experienced physical manifestations of stress and emotional distress from this matter, which has caused him to become hospitalized.”

Isaacs further claimed that he had become “unemployable,” and without her financial support he would be “destitute” and paying rent has become “impossible.”

In 2017, Blige was ordered to pay $30,000 a month in alimony to Issacs. Originally, his lawyers requested quadruple the amount to help him sustain his lifestyle.

“And I was very angry then when I made that (‘Rent Money’) song. I was very angry. And I was like, rent money due — period!” she concluded.

And there’s this: In 2018 Blige and Isaacs were sued by Golden Venus LLC for breach of contract for allegedly not paying nearly $60,000 in back rent, damaging their Beverly Hills mansion, and removing pre-installed audio-visual equipment.