Even almost a decade after she revealed her open marriage to Sidney Hicks, Mo'Nique is still asked to explain their arrangements.
The Oscar-winning actress stopped by Watch What Happens Live Thursday, and when host Andy Cohen began inquiring about the couple's do's and don'ts in the bedroom, she quickly put an end to any conversation about their "rules."
"The rule is simply honesty," she said. "When you start asking people about relationships—What about this one? What about that one?—often times with people we can't say, ‘This is how I'm feeling.' You find out, it's so not about sex. It's so not about, ‘Can you be with other people?'"
Mo'Nique continued, "It's simply about I won't take any secrets to my grave nor will he take any to his. We've been married for a decade now."
Over the years, the 48-year-old mother of four (two of which she shares with Hicks) has given countless interviews on the subject, and in January, the longtime couple launched their very own podcast to discuss relationships like their own.
During her appearance on WWHL, Mo'Nique revealed, "[The open marriage] was my idea. When we first had the conversation, it was because I was still in the mindset of I'm an entertainer; I'm a performer and I want to have it all. So I said, ‘I want to have an open marriage.'"
Hicks took the suggestion with stride, telling his partner, "‘Mo'Nique, we've been best friends since the tenth grade. Do you think that's going to stop us from loving one another?'" Mo'Nique added, "It was just being able to sit down and have that dialogue to say, ‘Hey, let's always make sure we're open and honest.'"
As for the public's response to their relationship, Mo'Nique responded, "Now the world took and said, ‘Oh my god, Mo'Nique will let that man sleep with anybody because she's a fat girl and he's a beautiful man.' I'm like, ‘OK, world. It wasn't his idea. It was mine.'"
The star recommends people "try it for [themselves] and find out," because, as she put it, "Now almost 11 years later, of course it's evolved, and it's evolved into this beautiful space of no secrets."
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