Tiny Talks Keeping Her Relationship With TI Fresh, Dealing With Groupies, & Hating Her Accent

By: Amanda Anderson-Niles

Tiny and TI have been together for years and they have managed to keep their relationship solid despite TI’s success in the music industry. So even though TI wasn’t originally too happy with Tiny doing a reality show with Toya Wright on BET, it just made sense to the couple to get their own show eventually, and show people a glimpse into their relationship and family life. Both TI and Tiny felt that they were somewhat misunderstood as a couple, especially since neither are strangers to legal issues. But from a image perspective, it’s obvious that their reality show Family Hustle helped them display the many sides of their marriage and family life that many people never get to see. And Tiny credits the show for making her relationship with T.I. and the couple’s family life a lot more understood by those who watch the show.

In a recent interview with Juicy Magazine, Tiny opens up about her marriage to TI, her upcoming talk show, and even that signature country accent of hers. She even reveals how tough Twitter can be for a celebrity, and why she wasn’t afraid to put all of her life in front of the cameras.

Recently, it was confirmed by VH1 that Tiny would be getting her own reality show. Tiny Tonight has already been labeled as the “urban” The View and Tiny has even been rumored to have asked her close friend fellow reality star Tamar Braxton to join her panel. Tiny explains how long she’s been working on the show, and what people can expect:

“It’s something that I’ve wanted to do for five years. The first person I talked to about this was Tamar Braxton, she is one of my oldest friends. We’d been talking about doing a show called Girl Talk. I want her for my cast, but she’s on [WEtv] and I’m on another network, so there are some bumps, but hopefully we can work everything out…and have Shekinah come in for her own segments.”

On the show’s topics:

“Politics. The daily news. And what’s going on in the world. We want to have fun with it…I want to do spoofs, maybe from reality TV, or something from the news.”

Tiny also revealed that although her accent was not a problem for her new show, it’s one of the things she wishes she could change about herself:

“…I wish I could change my accent. I hate the way it sounds. TLC were from Atlanta too, and I would ask them, “Why don’t you sound like me?” Left Eye was like. “I guess my accent is changing because I travel so much.” [I traveled with Xscape] and for years I waited for it to happen to me.”

Although Tiny is married to TI and has been with him for over a decade, she knows that there’s a lot criticism floating around about her relationship. But Tiny says they knew they could handle a reality show since they’ve been able to handle the public’s brutal scrutiny of their relationship:

“I was worried about the stigma associated with reality shows. You do a reality show and the couple breaks up. Before I did Tiny & Toya, me and Tip had conversations about it…But [we realized that] we were strong enough to get through whatever. We’ve been through all kinds of scrutiny like, “Why are they together?” “Why does he want her?” If we can [survive] all that and not give a damn what anyone thinks, then we can show them that we’re normal too.”

And although Tiny can handle the criticism regarding her relationship, what she can’t take is when people talk negative about her kids:

“Before The Family Hustle they attacked them…But after people see the show it’s like, “ I love those kids. They’re so cute.” There’s no more. “Oh, look at this kid, he’s ugly. He looks like his mama.” I don’t play about that, even if it’s on Twitter. It’s hard to think , Okay, let me let that go. People tell me to stay off Twitter. I’m like, “After I let them know THIS. I don’t give a sh*t what they think or how they feel because you attacked me first. They can attack me. But my kids? That’s a totally different story.”

Tiny also reveals that contrary to reports, The Family Hustle is not over. She says the reality show could possible be back for a third season, despite the fact that Tip isn’t that much into it. Even though the show did help them show people that they were normal people and had a normal relationship, she admits that she still has to work on keeping her relationship with TI fresh:

“We’ve been together 11 years and married for two. There’s a lot of love in the air. I’m very touchy, nurturing. When I’m around him, I’m flirting and talking sh*t and he likes it even if he’s being all manly. I let him know I’m into him all the time and he does the same.

“Tip wanting me there all the time lets me know how he feels. In some relationships, men are like. “Oh you’re going to California for a week? Great! See you later.” Not my man. I appreciate that…What if he didn’t care? I’d never appreciate a see-ya-when-I-see-ya attitude now that I’ve had this.”

And with any famous rapper, Tiny understands that there will be groupies. She explains how she handles them. Her answer, she lets Tip handle it:

“I don’t really worry because I know he’s crazy about me and I’m crazy about him…We are where we say we are and we don’t have those problems. I really don’t trip. I’m not jealous in that way. I know to expect it and I see how he handles it. Tip never lets anyone get out of line or be disrespectful. He checks it off top.”

In related news, Tiny’s new talk show Tiny Tonight has been confirmed to premiere Monday, Dec. 17 on VH1.