FROM LEFT: ON TINA: DKNY LEATHER JACKET; CALVIN KLEIN TOP; MICHAEL MICHAEL KORS JEANS; GUESS SHOES; RoBERT LEE MORRIS EARRINGS; KENNETH JAY LANE RING ON ERICA: ZARA VEST; FUZZI JUMPSUIT; L.A.M.B. SHOES; MElody RodgERS EARRINGS; EFVA AttlING CUFF FOR ALL FASHION INfoRMATION, SEE WHERE to BUY ON PAGE 132. BY ADRIENNE SAMUELS GIBBS PHOTOGRAPHY by MARC bapTISTE STYLING BY GOSPEL’S SUPERDUO, MARY MARY, FREDDIE LEIBA IS DECIDEdly HUMAN. EACH SISTER IS DEALING WITH MARRIAGE AND FAMIly ISSUES, A DEMAND- ING CAREER AND GOD’S PLAN foR HER LIFE. 102 VISIT EBONY.COM / JUNE 2013 JUNE 2013 / VISIT EBONY.COM 103 needed to sleep and let their gestating IT ’ S DIFFICULT TO IMAGINE the women behind the Grammy-winning bodies relax. Tina wanted date nights sound of Mary Mary opening up about their own need for prayer. Then again, maybe it’s with Teddy. And Erica wanted to go, go not so difficult. After all, they are gospel stars. And who stands more in need of prayer than and go some more. Their compromise? those commissioned to spread the word of God? Take a break from Mary Mary for an It’s a tough calling for the believer. Mess up and go to hell. Get too prideful and get undetermined amount of time. Erica can your feelings hurt. Live your life as a public Christian celebrity and be susceptible to all do her thing, which includes time with kinds of attacks. 17-month-old Zaya Monique, releasing Erica and Tina Campbell shouldered many burdens—and to be clear, many, many the single “A Little More Jesus,” starting Grammy-anointed blessings—for more than a decade without taking time out to a monthly Bible study with husband, recharge. But finally, after 12 years of singing and giving, it seems that a higher power Warryn Campbell, and perhaps publishing might be forcing them to slow down. The signs were overwhelmingly obvious. They got a children’s book. And Tina can do her tired. They quarreled. Their bodies, already taxed by grueling tour dates thing, too, limiting the amount of time and pregnancies, were exhausted. Their marriages she travels away from home, producing were unraveling—and so an album of children’s music and perhaps were they. fulfilling the call of a marriage ministry. To be clear, they will still perform concerts here and there, but a new Mary Mary FROM LEft: album won’t be in the cards until 2015. ON TINA:ABS One day, they’re singing their award- who, though unrelated, carry the same And then, the bombshell. It wasn’t BY ALLEN winning “Go Get It,” about grabbing your surname. until after they decided to break—around SCHWARTZ God-given blessings. The next? They’re The sisters have made a lucrative living February—that Tina learned her husband DRESS; MElody RodgERS pissed at each other and giving the side offering spiritual hits that routinely had stepped out on her with a longtime EARRINGS AND eye to their husbands because something infiltrate the mainstream; “Shackles family friend. Whom did she call first BRACELET; about both marriages just ain’t … right. (Praise You),” from their first album, with the devastating news? Erica, of KENNETH JAY Yep. Time for a break from the group, actually became a club hit. Their course. It was an indescribable setback, LANE BRACELET ON ERICA:LAUREN if only to fix the sisterhood and the sacred acceptance in the secular world is why especially given that friends came to Tina RALPH LAUREN marriage bed. “My theory is, when your Mary Mary became a viable business for relationship advice, and the sisters’ DRESS; SIMAN spiritual tank is low, when you’re running opportunity for WE tv, which has renewed marriages became storylines on their TU EARRINGS; on empty, you’re more susceptible to just their popular reality show for a third reality show. KENNETH JAY LANE doing what your flesh wants to do,” says season and recently reported a record high Tina, as God-fearing as one can get, BRACELETS; Erica. “It’s easier to cuss. It’s easier to 5.2 million viewers for the network. very nearly lost her mind. And Teddy BAdglEY get mad. It’s easier to give up. It’s a little But despite more than a decade of nearly lost it all. “Once I became aware MISCHKA SHOES harder to forgive. It’s a little harder to steady success, Tina yearned for a break. [of the affair], I initially wanted to kill my MAKEUP MAKEUP sacrifice.” Settling into her seat at Toast, West husband,” says Tina, taking a deep breath She goes on, haltingly, fleshing out the Hollywood’s scrumptious breakfast eatery, and shifting a fork. “I was considering B details that led to Mary Mary’s current she adjusts her floor-length skirt with a adjusting the will, the living trust and all Y AJ CRIMSON; HAIRST CRIMSON; AJ Y hiatus, which includes no studio work ringless left hand and explains why she that kind of stuff. I did physically try to for at least a year, limited touring, more must take time off. The past year was stab him. Several times. Over three days. time at home for Tina and a solo project hectic. She endured abdominal pains while I [thought I’d have] Erica attend to my for Erica. “Honestly, this break has a lot performing pregnant and often had an children. And when I got them back after to do with me and Tina just kind of being attitude. Now she needs time with new so many years—because I could find a way empty,” says Erica, smoothing out the baby Santana, born last August, and she to [kill him] and [claim it was] a crime of Y fabric of her body-conscious black-and- has to work on her relationship with hubby passion—I’d spend a little bit of time away LING LING white striped maxidress. As she talks, her Teddy Campbell, the drummer for Jay and come back.” wedding ring glints under the lobby lights Leno’s band on The Tonight Show. And you know she exchanged texts B Y KIM KIMBLE; PROP ST PROP KIMBLE; KIM Y inside the swanky Andaz West Hollywood “I spent my whole pregnancy (last with the chick, who was promptly hotel on Sunset Boulevard. “We just give year) being miserable, being angry, excommunicated from the family and then and give and give: an album and a baby being irritated with everybody, literally changed all her numbers. Still, the anger and an album and another baby … It’s hating the person I was because I was a festered. “I was working to become an evil, easy for things to fall apart. How did we very unpleasant person to be around,” angry, unforgiving, hateful person. I was get here, where we’re mad at each other, says Tina, a mother of five who got literally strategizing … It never got to the and we don’t like singing the music and we her tubes tied after Santana. “I was point of physical harm, not really, but my Y LING LING hate everybody around us?” uncompromising. I was unmanageable. I words … My words hurt.” Great questions. Do tell. was unrealistic. I was lacking compassion. Teddy doesn’t blame her. “I felt like she B Y CHARLOTTE MALMLOF CHARLOTTE Y And my hormones were so jacked up. I was justified. I was scared for both of us knew it, and it seemed like I couldn’t even because she was so angry,” he says. TINA AND ERICA WERE BORN two years fix [the situation]. I don’t want to be that After a week of transitioning through apart and, out of the nine children in the [person], pregnant or not pregnant.” fear, hurt, grief and embarrassment, Church of God in Christ-raised Atkins It didn’t help that the sisters bickered Tina—quite biblically—saw the light. family, they are the ones who became over tour dates and career direction, not to “Within seven days, I made a decision to a gospel group. Best friends then. Best mention the stresses of producing a show forgive my husband.” friends now. They even married men and traveling for performances. They both The reasons behind her decision are JUNE 2013 / VISIT EBONY.COM 105 “The empty space in your mind is the thanking God for blessings while also place the devil occupies,” he says. asking Him to grant just a smidge more Now the couple has filled the space favor and a tad more help. Erica then CALVIN KLEIN JACKET, TOP with each another. And while Tina asked Tina to write the second verse. AND PANTS; acknowledges that other women It’s truly a song born of pain, prayer and DSQUARED2 might talk smack about her decision healing. It challenges fans who are used SHOES; SIMAN to work through this issue, she—quite to the sisters singing together. Though no TU EARRINGS; KENNETH JAY MAX MARA characteristically—narrows her eyes strangers to criticism—especially from LANE NECKLACE StUDIO JACKET; and speaks forcefully about not giving a those who imply that Mary Mary’s brand ZARA TOP; hoot about what other people think. Her of modern music is not consistent with EILEEN FISHER PANTS; EFVA marriage may be a work in progress, but strict religious teachings—this new song AttlING she feels hopeful, as if they’ve just started takes a very different direction. EARRINGS AND dating again. She’s also working hard to “Some have said some really nasty BRACELET love him, mostly because he’s working things, implied some really ugly things furiously to keep her.