Nicci Gilbert Doesn’t Care What People Think of Her Behavior on ‘R&B Divas’

By: Taren Vaughan

Though she had a big issue with how she was portrayed on season one of the show, Nicci Gilbert is back for another round of R&B Divas as the show has returned for a second season on TV One. And though former Xscape member LaTocha Scott and Angie Stone are two new faces that have been added to the mix, the beef between returning cast mates Syleena Johnson and Nicci Gilbert has escalated to the point where Nicci and Syleena can’t manage to keep calm when they are around each other. And their beef has caused whispers to run rampant about Nicci getting kicked off the show over her inability to get along with Syleena despite Nicci shutting down the rumors on numerous occasions. Well Nicci has indeed returned and is still going at it with Syleena. In a released trailer of season two, Nicci and Syleena got into a heated exchange that ended in Nicci getting the boot out of Syleena’s house, an argument that went down over whether or not Syleena mushed cast mate Monifah in the club. In an interview that she did with Madame Noire, Nicci spoke on the issues between her and Syleena Johnson and says that what viewers saw of her last season wasn’t a true reflection of who she is as a person:

“I think what’s gonna to happen this season is you’re gonna see the truth. A lot of what you saw wasn’t who I really am. I don’t, you know, I’m not the girl who’s trying to run anybody’s life. I’m not this horrible, tyrant of a person who walks into a room saying ‘You do this and you do that.’ I’m definitely loud, I’m definitely going to tell you like it is, I’m definitely going to tell you the truth.”

R&B Divas is no different from other reality TV shows as the members of the cast receive criticism over how they act on the show. Nicci says that she had to learn that people will have their opinions of you but as long as your family and those close to you know how you truly are as a person, that is all that matters. And despite all the drama on the show from time to time, Nicci is very thankful for the opportunity:

“I don’t care because my husband loves me. He knows who I am. You know, our children, my husband has a beautiful daughter around the same age as mine. Our families know who we are. Our friends know who we are. And I think that that is the lesson that I had to learn in all of this, is that you know, God has given me a wonderful platform and along with that comes great responsibility.”

It’s clear that things got heated between Nicci and Syleena on the new season of the show but Nicci claims that she does have love for all of her cast mates and further explains why she thinks she bumped heads with Syleena:

“I love all of the ladies. I think it’s very obvious that Syleena and I have some differences. And I think that those differences are definitely going to be explored a lot more this season. In fact, I think last season, one of the issues that I had on the show was that I kept so much inside for fear that it would blow up and turn into something that it didn’t need to. I love all of the ladies. KeKe is definitely like my little sister. She is the youngest of us. My daughter is 22 years old and she’s also biracial so I can relate on a lot of levels to some of the insecurities and some of those things there. Monifah and I have been friends for years so I’ve known that I wanted to do something like this for awhile. And I’ve known that the personalities would definitely be…Monifah was going to be honest about her sexuality and really honest about her struggles with addiction. And I knew that KeKe was going to honest with her domestic issues. And I knew that Syleena would definitely bring that Midwest. And she’s young too. A lot of people don’t know, Syleena’s 35, 36 years-old you know what I mean. So there’s a difference between 35 and almost 43. So you know, it was a little bit of that too. I am the oldest, literally, in the bunch so I definitely have a different train of thought. And I think that a lot of times that was highlighted.”

Peep the clip below: