A Publicity Stunt: Love and Marriage: Huntsville Star Melody Holt Dishes on Being Newly

“Love and Marriage: Huntsville” star Melody Holt is stepping into a new season of life as a newly single woman and booked and busy mompreneur. As the breakout star of the show, fans witnessed her journey as she and then-husband Martell Holt formed businesses together while also experiencing ups and downs in their marriage. After allegations of a love child between Martell and another woman, Melody sought to rebuild her life through music, new businesses, and her kids. The hit show, which airs on OWN, came back for its third season, and Atlanta Black Star caught up with Holt, who dished on single life, and the status of her and ex-husband’s Martell Holt’s journey of co-parenting.

Are you dating? Are men shooting their shot?

Oh, well of course men are shooting their shot, OK? I think that has been for a while now. However, I will say that for me and where I am, I am more so focused on my career, I’m focused on my children, I am focused on ensuring that I am whole and healthy, and those are the most important things. Now, have I had people I’ve entertained and just talked to, hung out with, enjoyed talking to? Absolutely! Absolutely, that’s life. You meet people all the time, but my focus is career and my children.

Give us a scope of what other career endeavors you have going on.

So my career has definitely I would say has taken off in a lot of different directions. I recently dropped my single “Tell Tale Signs” which actually charted on the R&B charts at No. 4, and so I was very excited about that, especially being a new artist, I can say I was not expecting that at all. But I was thankful for sure for working with Grammy award-winning producer Bobby Robinson of [producing duo] Tim & Bob, also other wonderful writers 1500 or Nothin’, Libby Hot Cheeto, NaquaN, you know and everyone who just played a role in helping me to pen “Tell Tale Signs” and make that a hit. So, super thankful for that. 

Of course, I’ve also been building my Melody S. Holt Inc. brand, I do have a production company as well, and so between that, producing when it comes to TV, being a recording artist, still continuing to be an influencer and brand ambassador for different brands or partnerships that I have, I stay pretty busy, but it’s been an amazing journey so far.

How is your working dynamic with ex-husband Martell going now that the divorce is finalized?

So actually Martell and I are not in business together anymore. We don’t have any joint businesses at all. When we decided to divorce that was another part of it, was us deciding, you know, to dissolve our business partnerships that we had in place, and so I have really been focusing on rebranding myself from the Martell-Melody Holt duo, power couple that produced, and really learning how to rebrand myself now as the single mompreneur Melody S. Holt.

In terms of your relationship with Martell dissolving in front of everyone, do you have any regrets about having the cameras on?   

I would say I don’t have any regrets because whether the cameras had been on or not the outcome would have still been the same of where it is now. You know, me continuing to stay in a situation that was no longer beneficial for me mentally, spiritually or anything like that, I wouldn’t have stayed regardless if cameras were there or not. Going into, you know, season 1 of “Love and Marriage: Huntsville,” I was under the impression that infidelity was something that we’d experienced in our marriage, but something that we’d overcome. So when a week or two before cameras get there I find out that you still cheating, all those raw emotions is what the audience sees straight out the gate because it was fresh.

I thought we had moved past it, I was getting into my healing point, but it gets to a point or a place when you have to say, you know, when are you going to allow her to fully heal? Because as soon as I’m almost there, boom, there you are doing something else. And so it just made it very difficult, but that is why the audience was able to continuously see such raw high moments of emotions throughout these seasons, because it was Mel’s healing and then, boom, hit with a rock in my face, or a brick whatever you want to call it. I’m very authentic. I’m not a person who can fake it, I’m kind of face tells it all, and I’m very vocal, so if I’m hurt you gon’ know. If I’m happy you’re gonna know, so there’s no faking when it comes to me. That is why you guys have definitely been able to see everything at its highest point when it comes to the emotional roller coaster.

There’s more raw emotion coming up this season as we watch you and Martell go through counseling to learn how to better co-parent. How is that going?

You know, I would say when it come to the co-parenting it has its ups and downs. Honestly, there are moments when you feel like ‘Ooh, we got this thing together, OK!’ and then it’s, boom, no we don’t, and so that’s kind of what you guys will see this season. Of course it’s us on that journey of figuring out how to co-parent effectively and in a way that is positive for everyone involved, especially the children. And I think that this is a story that many people will be able to relate to because we know that a lot of people have experienced or gone through divorce and they had children in those marriages, so what does that look like when it comes to trying to co-parent and keep the children in a great mental space as best as possible where they’re not, you know, as affected as they could be. And so for us, Martell and I love our children with all of our hearts and both of us want what’s best for them, and we both want to see them still happy, still, you know, having the best opportunities when it comes to life, and this co-parenting piece is very instrumental in all of that, so we gotta figure it out.

How have the children rebounded from the situation?

Oh it’s still very new for them. You know, I have Mahlia, oftentimes she’s still the one who’s like ‘I want you guys to be married again’ or ‘I’m angry. I don’t like this.’ So they definitely have not rebounded. I don’t think it’s going to happen that fast as the demise of the marriage didn’t happen that fast, so it’s a lot of things that they’ve seen and they’ve been witness to and, yeah, it’s going to be a journey for sure.

Did you feel that the public apology Martell issued to you a few months back during his appearance on “The Steve Harvey Morning Show” was genuine? Or at that point was it falling on deaf ears?

Oh, definitely falling on deaf ears [chuckles]. I mean, this is what I will say, actions speak louder than words. OK, there have been many years where I heard apologies from Martell. While you guys have seen some, of course, on the show, imagine all the ones I had behind closed doors, the apologies, the promises, all of that, and I don’t care how many times you apologize or say how great I was to you all of these years, if your actions, the way you treat me after the fact, like, just because I decided to leave you doesn’t mean that I have to be your enemy, but you can make me your enemy. Now let’s be clear, I can be that, but it don’t have to be that, you know. When you apologize or attempt to apologize, but then I know how you treat me outside of that I can’t take you seriously. Maybe a publicity stunt? I don’t know. An image saver attempt maybe? 

Do you think it’s possible that you guys can get to a place where you’re friends again?

You know, I’m not going to say that it’s not possible. I think that it’s going to take time, a lot of time, and I’m not here to rush that process. You know, I’m not, and is that something that’s about to happen anytime soon? I would say honestly probably not, but I can see once because both parties have to be mature and both parties have to be willing to respect boundaries and be willing to be OK, like I feel like when you truly care about someone or you truly love or loved someone you also want them to be happy, and them being happy and choosing happiness makes you happy, it makes you OK. So until we can get to that point it can’t be no friendship right now. We can try to be cordial. Hopefully, that works. You’ll have to tune in to “Love and Marriage: Huntsville.”

You look very happy, so what does moving forward look like?

Well, continuing to go after my dreams and my goals, continuing to be a wonderful mom to my four pumpkins. People ask me all the time, “Do you think you’ll ever have more kids?” I’m like, probably not, I kind of got four. I’m kind of good with the four I have. So you know, just continuing to try to live in a way that allows them to have doors opened for them that I maybe didn’t have opened for me at such an early age, and trying to make sure that their way of living is not changed much just because their mom and dad are no longer together, so the lifestyle that they have been used to, vacationing and having everything they need, most of what they want. I’m still going to continue to work hard every single day to make sure that happens for them.

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