Let me start by saying, I give zero f*cks about Kardashian drama. I don't hate them, get your money. But as a journalist at heart and a cynic by nature, I can't help but believe that most celebrity drama is created for ratings. One of the first rules in branding is: all roads lead to the product, and in the case of the Jordyn Woods versus The Kardashians scandal, my first thought was that it was a publicity stunt to boost dialogue surrounding the upcoming season of Keeping Up With The Kardashians. Upon watching this week's episode of Jada Pinkett Smith's Red Table Talk, I realized that this might not be the case.
Jada sat down with Jordyn for an intense conversation about recent allegations against the star. According to tabloids, Jordyn, who has a decade-long friendship with Kylie Jenner, allegedly slept with Khloe Kardashian's boyfriend, Tristan Thompson. Since the news released, Jordyn has been called everything from a homewrecker to a bad friend, but now, the 21-year-old socialite has come forward to tell her side of the story and clear her name.
According to Jordyn, there was no relationship with Tristan before or after the alleged incident, and the way things played out was a lot different than the media portrayed. For starters, Jordyn claims that she was only at the basketball player's house for an after-party, and her biggest mistake was showing up. She told Jada:
"Sunday night, I went dinner with some friends and I went to this bar after. I was minding my business, dancing, drinking. Tristan was there, he was doing his own thing. Normal LA culture, go to the bar, go to the club, you go to someone's house afterward. We're not thinking about whose house. We're all having fun, we're in the moment."
Here's everything we learned from the interview:
Will Smith Is Jordyn Woods' Godfather
In my eyes, Jada and Will can do no wrong. But when I heard there would be a special episode featuring Jordyn Woods, I gave them a major side eye. I thought it was odd that Jada would use the platform she created to inspire so many women to fuel celebrity drama, so how in the hell did Jada get mixed up in all of this? It wasn't until I watched the episode that I learned that Jordyn and the Smith family actually have a life-long connection.
Jordyn's late-father worked on the set of the The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air as a sound engineer, where he and Will developed a friendship. During the interview, we learned that not only have Jordyn and Jaden been besties since birth, but Will is also Jordyn's godfather. He even stopped by the Red Table before the interview via FaceTime to give Jordyn these words of encouragement:
"The world attacks. It just happens. But I want you to know that you are supported. I got you and I got you… Take your medicine and tell your truth. This is a part of what growing up is, this is a part of what learning is, a part of what family is. This world is not going to break you. We won't allow it."
Jordyn Woods Didn't Have Sex With Tristan Thompson
Although Jordyn did admit that she felt wrong for even being at Tristan's house, she said that there was no intercourse between the two and that they had stayed in a public setting for the entire duration of the party. She explained:
"He didn't even personally invite me there…We're all dancing and we're drinking and we're all enjoying the time and I'm not thinking I shouldn't be here. And that's my first step where I went wrong. And how I would feel if someone close to me is hanging at my ex's house or the father of my child. I didn't think about that. That's the first part of the problem. The first step is, I should have gone home after the party. I shouldn't have been there. Never once was I giving him a lap dance, making out with him, sitting all over him, it's just we're all together, we're in a group. Never once did we leave the public area, go to a bedroom, go to a bathroom, we're all in plain sight."
"It was just an innocent time."
...But Tristan Did Kiss Her
But… there were some questionable moments that took place at the alleged after-party. For example, Jordyn remembers laying his legs on top of his. And, when she was getting ready to leave, an unwarranted kiss:
"So this is where the story gets tricky. I feel like I can't point fingers and I can't say you did this because I allowed myself to be in that position. I allowed myself to be there. I never was belligerently drunk to where I can't remember what happened. I was never blacked out. I was drunk. I was not tipsy. I was drunk but I was not beyond the point of recollection. I know where I was."
At the time, Jordyn says she was at a loss for words and left immediately. She revealed:
"On the way out, he did kiss me. No passion. It was a kiss on the lips but no tongue kiss, no making out. And I don't think he's wrong either because I allowed myself to be in that position and when alcohol's involved, people make dumb moves or they get caught up in the moment."
Jordyn Wasn't Forthcoming Initially
My first thought after hearing this was, well did you tell Khloe what happened? But Jordyn explained that it wasn't that easy. After spending the ride home trying to forgive and forget what Tristan had done, she made the decision to keep the incident to herself. Jordyn shared:
"In my head, trying to forget that part of the story, I said, 'No he was chillin. There were girls there but he wasn't all over them.' I was honest about being there. I wasn't honest about the actions that had taken place. I just knew how much turmoil was going on, I was like let me not throw more fuel on the fire."
How The Kardashian Drama Has Affected Jordyn's Personal Life
Instagram/@JordynWoods
Contrary to my belief, Jordyn revealed that nothing about this situation was for publicity, and the aftermath has affected her in ways that are almost too devastating to talk about. According to Jordyn, the first few days were the hardest:
"I couldn't eat. I didn't eat for days. I wouldn't look at my phone even. I would just try to sleep and hope that this wouldn't be true. Every time you refresh the page, it's another person bullying me, or wishing death upon me or telling me something like, 'Your father deserved to die.' I may have done something wrong but whatever I did, I don't think I deserve this."
In the emotional interview, Jordyn explained that it was important that she break her silence not to save her reputation, but to protect the people she loves. She continued:
"It's even hard for me to say this. Everyone's safety is now…we can't leave the house. My brother can't go to work. My sister can't go to school, she's twelve years old. My mom can't even go to the grocery store. I'm not here to play the victim. I'm here to take responsibility. And when I was asked about what happened, I didn't tell the truth to the people I loved, not because of malicious intent. But because I was just scared."
Now, I'm not here to pass judgment. Even though Jordyn Woods and The Kardashians are public figures, it doesn't give us the right to be judge, jury, or executioner when it comes to morality. But what I can say is, when I was 21 years old and made stupid mistakes, I had the advantage of not having my wrongs blasted and misconstrued all over the internet.
As much as I hate reality TV drama (with the exception of Black Ink Crew: Chicago, that's my sh*t), I am so glad Jada decided to bring Jordyn on Red Table Talk to speak her truth. No matter what the truth is, it's so important that we have people like Will and Jada in our lives who have our back and help us change the narrative. Despite how entertaining celebrity drama might be, the interview helped me gain an alternative perspective on how real lives can be affected by petty drama.
Watch the full video below:
Featured image by Jordyn Woods/Instagram.
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Amber Riley has the type of laugh that sticks with you long after the raspy, rhythmic sounds have ceased. It punctuates her sentences sometimes, whether she’s giving a chuckle to denote the serious nature of something she just said or throwing her head back in rip-roarious laughter after a joke. She laughs as if she understands the fragility of each minute. She chooses laughter often with the understanding that future joy is not guaranteed.
Credit: Ally Green
The sound of her laughter is rivaled only by her singing voice, an emblem of the past and the future resilience of Black women stretched over a few octaves. On Fox’s Glee, her character Mercedes Jones was portrayed, perhaps unfairly, as the vocal duel to Rachel Berry (Lea Michele), offering rough, full-throated belts behind her co-star’s smooth, pristine vocals. Riley’s always been more than the singer who could deliver a finishing note, though.
Portraying Effie White, she displayed the dynamic emotions of a song such as “And I'm Telling You I'm Not Going” in Dreamgirls on London’s West End without buckling under the historic weight of her predecessors. With her instrument, John Mayer’s “Gravity” became a religious experience, a belted hymnal full of growls and churchy riffs. In her voice, Nicole Scherzinger once said she heard “the power of God.”
Credit: Ally Green
Riley’s voice has been a staple throughout pop culture for nearly 15 years now. Her tone has become so distinguishable that most viewers of Fox’s The Masked Singer recognized the multihyphenate even before it was revealed that she was Harp, the competition-winning, gold-masked figure with an actual harp strapped to her back.
Still, it wasn’t until recently that Riley began to feel like she’d found her voice. This sounds unbelievable. But she’s not referring to the one she uses on stage. She’s referencing the voice that speaks to who she is at her core. “Therapy kind of gave me the training to speak my mind,” the 37-year-old says. “It’s not something we’re taught, especially as Black women. I got so comfortable in [doing so], and I really want other people, especially Black women, to get more comfortable in that space.”
“Therapy kind of gave me the training to speak my mind. It’s not something we’re taught, especially as Black women."
If you ask Riley’s manager, Myisha Brooks, she’ll tell you the foundation of who the multihyphenate is hasn’t changed much since she was a kid growing up in Compton. “She is who she is from when I met her back when she was singing in the front of the church to back when she landed major roles in film and TV,” Brooks says. Time has allowed Riley to grow more comfortable, giving fans a more intimate glimpse into her life, including her mental health journey and the ins and outs of show business.
The actress/singer has been in therapy since 2019, although she suffered from depression and anxiety way before that. In a recent interview with Jason Lee, she recalls having suicidal ideation as a kid. By the time she started seeing a psychologist and taking antidepressants in her thirties, her body had become jittery, a physical reminder of the trauma stacked high inside her. “I was shaking in [my therapist’s] office,” she tells xoNecole. “My fight or flight was on such a high level. I was constantly in survival mode. My heart was beating fast all the time. All I did was sweat.”
There wasn’t just childhood trauma to account for. After auditioning for American Idol and being turned away by producers, Riley began working for Ikea and nearly missed her Glee audition because her car broke down on the highway while en route. Thankfully, Riley had been cast to play Mercedes Jones. American Idol had temporarily convinced her she wasn’t cut out for the entertainment industry, but this was validation that she was right where she belonged. Glee launched in 2009 with the promise of becoming Riley’s big break.
In some ways, it was. The show introduced Riley to millions of fans and catapulted her into major Hollywood circles. But in other ways, it became a reminder of the types of roles Black women, especially those who are plus-sized, are relegated to. Behind the scenes, Riley says she fought for her character "to have a voice" but eventually realized her efforts were useless. "It finally got to a point where I was like, this is not my moment. I'm not who they're choosing, and this is just going to have to be a job for me for now," she says. "And, that's okay because it pays my bills, I still get to be on television, I'm doing more than any other Black plus-sized women that I'm seeing right now on screen."
The actress can recognize now that she was navigating issues associated with trauma and low self-esteem at the time. She now knows that she's long had anxiety and depression and can recognize the ways in which she was triggered by how the cult-like following of the show conflicted with her individual, isolated experiences behind the scenes. But she was in her early '20s back then. She didn't yet have the language or the tools to process how she was feeling.
Riley says she eventually sought out medical intervention. "When you're in Hollywood, and you go to a doctor, they give you pills," she says, sharing a part of her story that she'd never revealed publicly before now. "[I was] on medication and developing a habit of medicating to numb, not understanding I was developing an addiction to something that's not fixing my problem. If anything, it's making it worse."
“[I was] on medication and developing a habit of medicating to numb, not understanding I was developing an addiction to something that’s not fixing my problem. If anything it’s making it worse.”
Credit: Ally Green
At one point, while in her dressing room on set, she rested her arm on a curling iron without realizing it. It wasn't until her makeup artist alerted her that she even realized her skin was burning. Once she noticed, she says she was "so zonked out on pills" that she barely reacted. Speaking today, she holds up her arm and motions towards a scar that remains from the incident. She sought help for her reliance on the pills, but it would still be years before she finally attended therapy.
This stress was only compounded by the trauma of growing up in poverty and the realities of being a "contract worker." "Imagine going from literally one week having to borrow a car to get to set to the next week being on a private jet to New York City," she says. After Glee ended, so did the rides on private planes. The fury of opportunities she expected to follow her appearance on the show failed to materialize. She wasn't even 30 yet, and she was already forced to consider if she'd hit her career peak.
. . .
We’re only four minutes into our Zoom call before Riley delivers her new adage to me. “My new mantra is ‘humility does not serve me.’ Humility does not serve Black women. The world works so hard to humble us anyway,” she says.
On this Thursday afternoon in April, the LA-based entertainer is seated inside her closet/dressing room wearing a cerulean blue tank top with matching shorts and eating hot wings. This current phase of healing hinges on balance. It’s about having discipline and consistency, but not at the risk of inflexibility. She was planning to head to the gym, for instance, but she’s still tired from the “exhausting” day before. Instead, she’s spent her day receiving a massage, eating some chicken wings, and planning to spend quality time with friends. “I’m not going to beat myself up for it. I’m not going to talk down to myself. I’m going to eat my chicken wings, and then tomorrow I’m [back] in the gym,” she says.
“My new mantra is ‘humility does not serve me.’ Humility does not serve Black women. The world works so hard to humble us anyway."
This is the balance with which she's been approaching much of her life these days. It's why she's worried less about whether or not people see her as someone who is humble. She'd rather be respected. "I think you should be a person that's easy to work with, but in the moments where I have to ruffle feathers and make waves, I'm not shying away from that anymore. You can do it in love, you don't have to be nasty about it, but I had to finally be comfortable with the fact that setting boundaries around my life – in whatever aspect, whether that's personal or business – people are not going to like it. Some people are not going to have nice things to say about you, and you gotta be okay with it," she says.
When Amber talks about the constant humbling of Black women in Hollywood, I think of the entertainers before her who have suffered from this. The brilliant, consistent, overqualified Black women who have spoken of having to fight for opportunities and fair pay. Aretha Franklin. Viola Davis. Tracee Ellis Ross. There's a long list of stars whose success hasn't mirrored their experiences behind the scenes.
Credit: Ally Green
If Black women outside of Hollywood are struggling to decrease the pay gap, so, too, are their wealthier, more famous peers.
Riley says there’s been progress in recent years, but only in small ways and for a limited group of people. “This business is exhausting. The goalpost is constantly moving, and sometimes it’s unfair,” she says. But, I have to say it’s the love that keeps you going.”
“There’s no way you can continue to be in this business and not love it, especially being a plus-sized Black woman,” she continues. “We’re still niche. We’re still not main characters.”
"There’s no way you can continue to be in this business and not love it, especially being a plus-sized Black woman. We’re still niche. We’re still not main characters.”
Last year, Riley starred alongside Raven Goodwin in the Lifetime thriller Single Black Female (a modern, diversified take on 1992’s Single White Female). It was more than a leading role for the actress, it also served as proof that someone who looks like her can front a successful project without it hinging on her identity. It showcased that the characters she portrays don’t “have to be about being a big girl. It can just be a regular story.”
Riley sees her work in music as an extension of her efforts to push past the rigid stereotypes in entertainment. Take her appearance on The Masked Singer, for instance. Riley said she decided to perform Mayer’s “Gravity” after being told she couldn’t sing it years earlier. “I wanted to do ‘Gravity’ on Glee. [I] was told no, because that’s not a song that Mercedes would do,” she says. “That was a full circle moment for me, doing that on that show and to hear what it is they had to say.”
As Scherzinger praised the “anointed” performance, a masked Riley began to cry, her chest heaving as she stood on stage, her eyes shielded from view. “You have to understand, I have really big names – casting directors, producers, show creators – that constantly tell me ‘I’m such a big fan. Your talent is unmatched.’ Hire me, then,” she says, reflecting on the moment.
Recently, she’s been in the studio working on original music, the follow-up to her independently-released debut EP, 2020’s Riley. The sequel to songs such as the anthemic “Big Girl Energy” and the reflective ballad “A Moment” on Riley, this new project hones in on the singer’s R&B roots with sensual grooves such as the tentatively titled “All Night.” “You said I wasn’t shit, turns out that I’m the shit. Then you called me a bitch, turns out that I’m that bitch. You said no one would want me, well you should call your homies,” she sings on the tentatively titled “Lately,” a cut about reflecting on a past relationship. From the forthcoming project, xoNecole received five potential tracks. Fans likely already know the strengths and contours of Riley’s vocals, but these new songs are her strongest, most confident offerings as an artist.
“I am so much more comfortable as a writer, and I know who I am as an artist now. I’m evolving as a human being, in general, so I’m way more vulnerable in my music. I’m way more willing to talk about whatever is on my mind. I don’t stop myself from saying what it is I want to say,” she says.
Credit: Ally Green
“Every era and alliteration of Amber, the baseline is ‘Big Girl Energy.’ That’s the name of her company,” her manager Brooks says, referencing the imprint through which Riley releases her music after getting out of a label deal several years ago. “It’s just what she stands for. She’s not just talking about size, it’s in all things. Whether it’s putting your big girl pants on and having to face a boardroom full of executives or sell yourself in front of a casting agent. It’s her trying to achieve the things she wants to do in life.”
Riley says she has big dreams beyond releasing this new music, too. She’d love to star in a rom-com with Winston Duke. She hasn't starred in a biopic yet, but she’d revel in the opportunity to portray Rosetta Tharpe on screen. She’s determined that her previous setbacks won’t stop her from dreaming big.
“I think one of my superpowers is resilience because, at the end of the day, I’m going to kick, scream, cry, cuss, be mad and disappointed, but I’m going to get up and risk having to deal with it all again. It’s worth it for the happy moments,” she says.
If Riley seems more comfortable and confident professionally, it’s because of the work she’s been doing in her personal life.
She’d previously spoken to xoNecole about becoming engaged to a man she discovered in a post on the site, but she called things off last year. For Valentine’s Day, she revealed her new boyfriend publicly. “I decided to post him on Valentine’s Day, partially because I was in the dog house. I got in trouble with him,” she says, half-joking before turning serious. “The breakup was never going to stop me from finding love. Or at least trying. I don’t owe anybody a happily ever after. People break up. It happens. When it was good, it was good. When it was bad, it was terrible, hunny. I had to get the fuck up out of there. You find happiness, and you enjoy it and work through it.”
Credit: Ally Green
"I don’t owe anybody a happily ever after. People break up. It happens. When it was good, it was good. When it was bad, it was terrible, hunny. I had to get the fuck up out of there. You find happiness and you enjoy it and work through it.”
With her ex, Riley was pretty outspoken about her relationship, even appearing in content for Netflix with him. This time around is different. She’s not hiding her boyfriend of eight months, but she’s more protective of him, especially because he’s a father and isn’t interested in becoming a public figure.
She’s traveling more, too. It’s a deliberate effort on her part to enjoy her money and reject the trauma she’s developed after experiencing poverty in her childhood. “I live in constant fear of being broke. I don’t think you ever don’t remember that trauma or move past that. Now I travel and I’m like, listen, if it goes, it goes. I’m not saying [to] be reckless, but I deserve to enjoy my hard work.”
After everything she’s been through, she certainly deserves to finally let loose a bit. “I have to have a life to live,” she says. “I’ve got to have a life worth fighting for.”
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