Jeannie Mai has been gushing over Jeezy on 'The Real' ever since they went public, and now they are engaged
Jeannie Mai and Jeezy are engaged. According to People Magazine, the 42-year-old rapper/philanthropist proposed to the 41-year-old co-host of ‘The Real’ on March 27.
Jeezy reportedly wanted to propose to Mai sometime in April during a previously planned trip to Vietnam. The lockdowns that ensued in light of the coronavirus pandemic effectively ruined their travel plans, and Jeezy decided to pop the question during a special date night at his home in Los Angeles.
“Jeannie and Jay were set for a trip to Vietnam this April. What Jeannie didn’t know is that Jay was planning to propose,” Mai’s representative told the entertainment news outlet. “Instead, Jay decided to bring Vietnam to Jeannie with a surprise quarantine date night in his home filled with Vietnamese food and decor.”
The couple met on the set of Mai’s daytime talk show ‘The Real’. The two reportedly began dating in November 2018 but didn’t reveal it to the public until August 2019, when they walked the red carpet at a gala for Jeezy’s non-profit, Street Dreamz.
Mai has been very public about the relationship since then. “My man is fine-fine!” Mai said on ‘The Real’ September last year. “Okay, I have to tell you, man this is crazy because I haven’t talked to anybody about this on a public level besides my friends and family.”
She praised him as “introspective, he’s passionate, he’s incredibly deep, he’s a visionary, he’s a great leader, he’s an amazing servant to his community”, adding, “What’s crazy is that the things that I’ve been criticized for my whole life and my past relationships -- ‘Jeanie, you’re too deep, you think about things too much. Like, why’s everything gotta have a purpose?’ -- and I’m not one for small talk or small conversations, I want to know: Why do you think the way you do? What brought you to look at things the way you do? Who are you? Who’s important to you? And I found my equal.”
Last year on her show, she also gushed about meeting Jeezy’s whole family. “It was an unforgettable, surreal moment. It was the first time that we obviously spent Thanksgiving together, and to be able to have an intimate dinner with his family … His family is beautiful. They’re all such lovely people and they’re fun,” Mai told the audience.
She further said that Jeezy’s family made her feel right at home. “They got mad cousins. And if you saw [Jeezy’s Instagram] Story, we turned it into a lit-lit party afterward. There was a DJ and there was electric sliding … There were a lot of things going on. But this is what was most meaningful,” she said. “I asked his auntie, who loves to bring different dishes, to make me -- and I threw it out there thinking she wasn’t going to do it -- to make me -- her name is Mother, and I was like, ‘Mother, will you make me some oxtails and some chitlins?’ And yo, she came with Tupperware, chitlins, and oxtail, and they were just for me! They weren’t for everyone, and she was like, ‘These are just for you, don’t let anyone else have them.’ It was so wonderful to meet his family and be able to spend time together. It was special.”
In another episode in October last year, Mai compared her marriage to ex-husband Freddy Harteis with her relationship with Jeezy. “My own standards were low. We can go into a whole counseling session on why I only gave myself the bare minimum,” she said. “I am not blaming my ex for the things that he barely came through to do. When he said things like 'good for you' or 'that's cool,' I'm like, that's great, he supports me! That to me is my standard of support.”
‘I didn't even know until my new relationship that something as basic,” Mai said while holding back tears. “I'm not crying to feel bad for me. It was just so touchy. But even something as basic as like at his birthday party, he left his birthday to drive me to the airport.”
More recently, Mai brought up her now-fiance on ‘The Real’ while talking about the coronavirus. “When Jeezy and I were in Fashion Week just recently and there were pictures posted, I saw in the comments on other blogs a couple of times like, ‘Don’t be catching that Corona, Jeezy’ or ‘She got that Corona that latched him in,'” she said on the talk show in February.
Mai split from Harteis after 10 years of marriage in 2017, while Jeezy, father of three children, called off his engagement to his then long-time girlfriend Mahi in 2018.