Mary J. Blige files for divorce from manager-husband Kendu Isaacs - Los Angeles Times
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Mary J. Blige files for divorce from manager-husband Kendu Isaacs

Mary J. Blige and Kendu Isaacs at the 21st Annual Critics Choice Awards in January 2016.
(Christopher Polk / Getty Images)
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Mary J. Blige has filed for divorce from Kendu Isaacs, her manager and husband of 12 years.

Blige, 45, cited irreconcilable differences — this is California, there is no dish — in papers filed at Los Angeles County Superior Court on Tuesday. She and her estranged husband, legal name Martin Isaacs, have no minor children together, and their date of separation remains to be determined.

The “No More Drama” singer has requested that the court not award Isaacs spousal support, and property details have yet to be worked out, according to the filing.

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Blige and Isaacs met in 2000, when she was pulling her life out of a tailspin, and were married in a small ceremony in New Jersey on Dec. 7, 2003.

The R&B singer has credited Isaacs with being a saving force who helped her overcome her demons — drugs, alcohol and clinical depression among them. However, once she was in a better place, her music started to reflect that reality, and some fans who loved her darker material weren’t entirely supportive of her newfound contentment.

“First I was hurt ...,” she told The Times in 2011. “I can’t get angry at them for saying, ‘We love you Mary, but we’re kinda miserable still.’ I was a little hurt but I understood — they haven’t moved. So many people were angry that I changed [but] so many people stayed with me.”

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Over the course of the marriage, there have been rumors of problems between the two, but Blige told friend Wendy Williams in a 2012 interview that her marriage was “not on the rocks.”

“But I would be a liar,” she continued, “and my fans would hate me if I said to them, ‘Oh, we’re perfect and everything is great.’”

Blige told the Telegraph in 2014 that she and her man had separate groups of friends. “All females for me, all guys for him” she said. “There’s none of that, ‘Oh, that’s my female friend. Oh, that’s my guy friend.’ No. Not in a marriage, I’ve never seen that work.”

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Follow Christie D’Zurilla on Twitter @theCDZ.

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