The 'Real' co-host is explaining her controversial comments in a new 'DWTS' interview with ET.
Jeannie Mai is shedding more light on her plans to be "submissive" in her marriage to Jeezy.
ET spoke with the Dancing With the Stars contestant on Monday, just moments after she and her pro partner, Brandon Armstrong, performed an epic Madonna-inspired routine during '80s Night. During the interview, Mai opened up about the controversial marriage comments she made during a recent episode of The Real.
"I think a lot of women need to hear -- and not saying it is right for you, but you also need to understand -- when you give power to somebody, that's also a power move itself. He is not going to have power if I don't give that to him," Mai explained to ET. "I have that power to be able to share that with him. To say, 'I want you to lead. I want you to do what you do well as a man that I am trusting you to do. Take in my thoughts, my wishes, my dreams and then compute that into a vision for us that I can feel safe and secure knowing that you can lead us.'"
"By the way, he wouldn't have that if I wasn't a powerful woman to be able to give him that," she continued. "I just want women to remind themselves that you are the powerful being and a big part of the picture if you are able to do that in your household. There's a beautiful dance that can come out of it, and it's no different than what Brandon and I do every week on the dance floor. If I don't give him the ability to lead me, you are not going to see what you saw tonight."
Mai also spoke about the topic via her Instagram over the weekend. "By giving the power to have someone lead in your life is power in itself. The power to relinquish control. You 'willingly submit' not 'forcibly submit,'" she wrote on Instagram, before cleverly turning attention to Dancing With the Stars. "...Speaking of submissions, submit them votes Monday night 😉 #TeamDreamofJeannie #DancingWithTheStars."
In case you missed it, Mai told her Real co-hosts last week that she plans to take a "submissive" role when she and Jeezy tie the knot -- but added that she doesn't think it makes her "lower" than her partner in any way.
"So, I'm gonna say right here, that I, Jeannie Mai, going into my marriage -- I want to submit to my man. Let me explain," she said. "When I hear this definition ... submitting has a negative connotation. It means that you are less important, you are lower than that person that you're submitting to. It usually can be like, you know, referenced as somebody who works lower than you and that's not what I'm referring to here."
Mai said that since she makes so many decisions when it comes to her career, she likes the idea of her husband taking the lead at home. She noted that this approach works for her, but might not for others.
"I'm a very dominant woman. I own my business, I lead my teams, I played my own manager, my own publicist, my own lawyer when I didn't have money to have those people," she explained. "So, I make the decisions in my life. When I come home, I like the idea that my man leads us. That doesn't mean that in this case Jay makes all the decisions for us. That doesn't mean that when he says, 'How are we spending our money?' or 'Where are we moving?' that I just say, 'Yes sir,' or 'Yes, your honor.' Like, it’s not that. It’s a, 'You know what? I think that we would do best here, I want to do this,' and he takes the decision, he formulates it with our overall vision, and he leads us and I like to submit to that."
"I don’t want to lead in our household and in our marriage," she continued. "I want him to lead, and I have all the essence of what I bring as a wife to make that decision, but that I love that my husband will be the man that leads. I like that structure in a marriage and I look forward to that because girls -- it’s tiring being the boss of me. It’s tiring leading all the time in my life."
See more on Mai in the video below.
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