Why did Sandra Jacqueline Denton aka Pepa divorce rapper Treach? How Salt-N-Pepa star's marriage ended in tragedy
A biopic on 'The First Ladies of Rap and Hip Hop', which follows the group Salt-N-Pepa, is hitting the streaming platform Lifetime on January 23, 2021. The hip-hop girl group formed in 1985 consisted of Cheryl James aka Salt and Sandra Jacqueline Denton aka Pepa along with DJ Sprindella whose real name is Deidra Roper.
The trio won the coveted Grammy Award in 1995 for Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group for their hit single ‘None of Your Business.’ It made them one of the first female rap acts to win a Grammy Award, along with Queen Latifah, who won during the same year. Salt-N-Pepa is also known for their hit singles ‘Push It,’ ‘Let's Talk About Sex,’ and ‘Shake That Thang,’ among a few others. A lot is known about the successful musical trio's professional life, however, the personal life of the members have also been equally in the news, especially about the controversial divorce of Pepa and rapper Treach.
Pepa and Treach marriage
Sandra Jacqueline Denton aka Pepa got married to rapper Treach whose real name is Anthony Criss in the year 1999. Treach is a hip-hop artist from the rap group Naughty by Nature. The duo dated on-and-off for quite some time before finally walking down the aisle. Their wedding ceremony was held at their home in Morristown, New Jersey and they had one daughter before they got married named Egypt Jahnari Criss who was born in the year 1998.
Why did Pepa divorce Treach?
The duo got divorced in the year 2001 after the news of alleged physical abuse by Treach made headlines everywhere. In her tell-all book, Pepa recalled a moment where Treach wanted a divorce. As published by Ace Showbiz, Pepa said, "I fell asleep in his arms. The next thing I knew, I opened my eyes and he's standing over me. He screamed, 'B***h! I want a divorce!' He then grabbed my ring off my finger and threw it at me with all his might. He grabbed me and yanked me out of the bed. He started slamming me into the headboard. He picked me up by my throat, choking me and he slammed me into the footboard. I felt as if my back had cracked open on the hard metal. He kept yelling, 'F**k you, b***h!' as he kept punching me."
However, Treach always maintained that it was Pepa who cheated in the relationship with another woman. In an interview on ‘The Breakfast Club’, he claimed Pepa left him for another woman revealing that the female emcee was both into men and women, as reported by Ace Showbiz. He further spilled the beans saying had a girlfriend when they were married and she left him for their girlfriend. “I just got cheated on. I didn’t have to [cheat]. I’m a man with two women.”
Speaking about the divorce in the same interview, he had then said, “We have a love-hate relationship. We good, it’s just certain things that come up from her book. And now there’s going to be a Salt-N-Pepa movie. I’m looking at the character they got for me and they want to release it, but it never happened. ‘What’s Love Gotta Do With It’ was a good movie, but it wasn’t our story.”