LeToya Luckett Launches New YouTube Show With Her Ex Slim Thug As Her First Guest
From singing to acting to reality TV, LeToya Luckett now has her own YouTube show. The “Torn” singer premiered her new show titled Leave It to LeToya this week on the Kin network which also houses Tia Mowry’s Quick Fix, Adrienne Bailon’s All Things Adrienne, and many others. Leave It to LeToya is a lifestyle channel that will touch on the singer’s life, family, fashion, and much more.
The series already started off with a bang with her first episode featuring her ex-boyfriend Houston rapper Slim Thug. The former couple began dating in 2000 after meeting at a club in H-Town. They were on and off for 10 years and revealed that they were even engaged at one point. During their sit-down, the artists reflected on their relationship and whether or not they can give love another try.
Here are some highlights:
On How LeToya Luckett and Slim Thug Met:
They met at a club in Houston and LeToya shared that the “Like a Boss” rapper actually sent a friend over to speak to her. She reluctantly went over to meet Slim and they exchanged numbers. However, when the rapper called the Greenleaf actress the phone somehow hung up and they didn’t speak until they met at a different club much later. “You can tell she was trying to get my attention. She walked by like five times,” Slim said about seeing LeToya a second time, to which the singer denied. “He caught me in the corner when the lights came on,” LeToya explained. She was also able to clear up what happened when she hung up on him and from there that was the beginning of their relationship.
On What LeToya Liked About Slim:
The “Regret” singer said that what drew her to the “I Ain’t Hear of That” artist was his “confidence.” “He’s not shy when it comes to his artistry and his creativity. He’s a star when he walks in,” she said. She then began describing his appearance saying that his height at 6'6'' as well as his being handsome makes him stand out. “It’s a light on him when he walks in any room. It’s attractive.”
On What Slim Liked About LeToya:
Slim admitted that he was initially drawn to LeToya’s “drip.” “She always dress like she going somewhere fancy,” he said. He also shared that he was taken aback by her sense of humor saying that he didn’t know she was that funny and that they felt like “BFFs.” “We really enjoyed kickin’ it,” he said.
On Why They Broke Up:
LeToya cited the reason behind their breakup as being too young to settle down. “We tried to have something serious at a very young age,” she explained. “I met him at 20. To my surprise, he was ready to lock in, get married, have a home, kids, in our early 20s. Although his heart was probably ready for something like that, his environment–they didn’t align.” While she didn’t say whether there was cheating in the relationship, she did say Slim would often entertain the attention he got from women causing her to become frustrated and “leave a lot.” “I felt like issues we could have probably worked through, talked through if I didn’t feel that he was hearing me, or was ready to make the changes that needed to be made, I was out.”
Slim, on the other hand, believes that their small disagreements and breakups to make-ups ultimately took a toll on the entire relationship. However, he did take the blame for their relationship’s demise. “I do take the responsibility of being the person that messed up and I’m not blaming her at all. It was my mistakes that led us not being together,” he said.
On If They Will Ever Get Back Together:
The former Destiny’s Child member shared that Slim often told her they were “soul mates.” She acknowledged that they already have a foundation, friendship, and history for a possible reconciliation. “I think it would be a conversation of what do you need? What do I need? This is what I need and what do you need?” She said.
“I know and I’ve learned that you can’t make somebody happy. You have to be happy with yourself and be whole and then that person has to come in and complement that and see you and I think in my relationships moving forward, I have to be seen. The good thing about Slim is he has seen me in almost every way happy, sad, angry, confused, every state because we were a decade in so I think it would just be communication, patience for sure. This is what I want. This is what I expect. This is where I’m at.”
Having a Conversation with My Ex
Let’s make things inbox official! Sign up for the xoNecole newsletter for daily love, wellness, career, and exclusive content delivered straight to your inbox.
Featured image by Paras Griffin/Getty Images for Black Music Honors
Black women are not a monolith. We all are deserving of healing and wholeness despite what we've been through, how much money we have in the bank, or what we look like. Most importantly, we are enough—even when we are not working, earning, or serving.
Welcome to Black Girl Whole, your space to find the wellness routine that aligns with you! This brand-new marketplace by xoNecole is a safe space for Black women to activate their healing, find the inspiration to rest, and receive reassurance that we are one small act away from finding our happiness.
Want to discover where you are on your wellness journey? You don't have to look far. In partnership with European Wax Center, we're bringing you a customized wellness quiz to help you up your wellness game. Answer our short series of questions to figure out which type of wellness lover you are, what you need to bring more balance into your life, and then go deeper by shopping products geared towards clearing your mind, healing your body, and soothing your spirit.
Ready to get whole? Take our quiz now!
'Queen Charlotte' Star Arsema Thomas Worked At The United Nations Before Landing Her Breakout Role
Actress Arsema Thomas (Arséma Adeoluwayemi Hamera) may be new to the acting scene, but the star's standout performance in Netflix's limited series Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story is already leaving a lasting impression among many.
Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story, a prequel to Bridgerton, follows the young queen's life as her marriage to King George of England sparks an epic love affair and a societal shift.
In the drama, Thomas portrays the role of a young Lady Agatha Danbury, a close friend and confidant of Queen Charlotte, and it also depicts Lady Danbury's journey.
The series showcases the struggles Lady Agatha Danbury experienced in her lifetime. The list includes being forced to partake in a loveless marriage to a former African king Herman Danbury, becoming a widow, and possibly losing her estate and title following her husband's death.
Since Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story debuted on Netflix earlier this month, it has dominated the streaming service's top ten charts and piqued fans' interest in the show's stars, including Thomas.
Although many may not know a lot about the Atlanta native, who goes by she/they pronouns, and how she became one of the breakout stars in Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story, still, with the recent promotional tour Thomas has been doing for the show, she has shared some shocking details about her life.
Thomas' revelations within the past several months include details about her educational pursuits, previous work experience, her African culture, the steps she took to prepare for her role as Lady Agatha Danbury, and many more.
Arsema On Her African Heritage
Thomas, who is Nigerian and Ethiopian, is the daughter of diplomats.
The 28-year-old's parents, consisting of an Ethiopian mother and a Nigerian father, worked in the government to improve Africa's economic development.
Due to her parents' professions, the actress moved around a lot and lived in various countries like Kenya, Benin, Comoros, Uganda, and India, which exposed her to social issues. In an interview with Teen Vogue, Thomas opened up about having conversations about politics and government at a young age.
"Dinner table conversations were about politics, about African governance. I realized that in a lot of the countries I lived in, the effects of colonialism and imperialism were so blatantly obvious. That became the driving force for what I thought I should be doing as an adult," she said.
Later Thomas would ultimately reveal that her parents' work had inspired her to become a "doctor or something" because she wanted to make them proud.
Arsema Attended Carnegie Mellon University and Yale University
Prior to pursuing acting, Thomas revealed to Shondaland that she was a college graduate.
In 2016, she received her bachelor's degree in biophysics from Carnegie Mellon University. Following her graduation, Thomas interned at a mobile health clinic and a refugee camp in Kenya for over a year.
Around the same time, the star would continue her education by getting her master's in epidemiology and health policy at Yale University. Thomas disclosed that despite the educational success that she has achieved, acting became her main priority when she realized that this is something she could envision herself doing "100 percent of the time." This decision led Thomas to relocate to Paris, South Africa, and then to London to study drama.
"I packed up everything and moved to Paris because I wanted to do acting 100 percent of the time," she stated. "It was always something I had wanted to do, [but] I didn't think I would be able to. I thought it was going to be a hobby or a thing that I'd have to suppress in myself for the rest of my life."
Thomas would land her first role in 2021 as a guest star on the television series One Touch. Shortly after, she would participate in the 2022 film Redeeming Love as the character Rebecca. The rest would be history because, around that time, Thomas would receive the life-changing role of Lady Agatha Danbury in Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story.
Arsema On How She Prepared for Her Role In Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story
When the opportunity for Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story came along, Thomas took various steps to transform into Lady Agatha Danbury.
The actress, who has admitted to never seeing Bridgerton in the past, told Cosmopolitan UK's Up Close series that because she wasn't familiar with the fictionalized character, she decided to find things that she thought Lady Agatha Danbury would resonate with.
It includes reading books about women by well-known female authors who have made history in their own right, creating a Spotify playlist with music that Lady Agatha Danbury could listen to, and having waist beads made for her character.
"There was a lot of stuff I needed to get into this role because the character is fictional. So I read a ton of books about women or by women, that I thought that Agatha Danbury would resonate. So I read 'Ain't I A Woman' by Bell Hooks. I read Angela Davis' autobiography. I read Assata Shakur's autobiography, 'Tar Baby' by Toni Morrison, 'Eyes Are Watching God,' and 'Vaga Bonds' by Eloghosha Osunde. I made an extensive Spotify playlist, and I got waist beads made for Agatha," she explained.
Further in the interview, Thomas mentioned that she had waist beads made for Lady Danbury and wore them throughout the filming process because it helped ground her as she portrayed the character whom she described as entirely different from who she is as a person.
"It was a Nigerian woman threading these beads, and I asked her to thread beads specifically for this character, and I wore it throughout the entirety of filming," she said. "Because it was just kind of was a physical grounding point to this woman that is really, really actually far from who I am as an individual."
Thomas shared that talking to her grandmother, who had a similar background to Lady Danbury, such as having an arranged marriage at a young age, also helped her prepped for the role.
"I also talked to my grandmother a lot. I didn't realize how similar she was to this character. Because she was also married off when she was quite young," she revealed. "It was really interesting to kind of talk to someone in my life who I've known, who’s gone through something that is essentially the stripping away of their freedom, and someone who doesn't have any resentment or harbored anger towards the situation."
Arsema Worked At The United Nations
Thomas' work experience is an interesting one. Despite interning at three different health organizations, she previously worked at United Nations Population Fund, according to her Linkedin profile.
United Nations Population Fund's site states that the organization is part of the United Nation's "sexual and reproductive health agency." The gathered information on Thomas' profile says that she was an associate for the company from 2017 to 2018.
Some of Thomas' responsibilities included conducting "policy analyses" for United Nations Population Fund's sustainability and "supporting the regional desk specialist" in the program's division.
Arsema Speaks Five Languages
On top of Thomas' overwhelmingly impressive resume, the actress also speaks five languages.
According to the African publication Bella Naija, Thomas speaks English, Amharic, Yoruba, French, and Spanish. Although Thomas hasn't publicly talked about what inspired her to become multilingual, many can assume it is because of the various locations she has lived in throughout her life and her interest in learning.
Thomas may be a rising star now, but with the facts provided above, the actress has displayed through her work ethic and drive that she can soon become a household name.
Thomas' latest work Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story, is now streaming on Netflix.
Let’s make things inbox official! Sign up for the xoNecole newsletter for daily love, wellness, career, and exclusive content delivered straight to your inbox.
Feature image by Dominik Bindl/Getty Images
