Mo'Nique has been very outspoken about being in an open marriage with her husband Sidney Hicks, to the point that the couple even have a podcast dedicated to the topic. On the latest episode of Mo'Nique and Sidney's Open Relationship, the Oscar-winning actress revealed why she wanted to be an an unconventional marriage in the first place — because she didn't want to give up her side piece.

“Initially, when I asked for it, it was because I wanted to continue to see the gentlemen that I was seeing, and I felt comfortable telling my best friend [Hicks] that…and I didn’t want it to be where I was keeping anything from my best friend," she explained. "That’s how it initially started, and when I tell you the conversations that we’ve had, it has taken me to a different place where I’m not even thinking of another man sexually, but still open to it.” 
Mo’Nique has also explained that her and Hicks have been best friends since the actress was 14, and that she trusted him enough to have the honest conversation, “which unfortunately some of us are afraid to have.”
It's not clear when she stopped seeing the "gentleman" she was with when she and Hicks tied the knot, or how many other lovers she's had since then, but we gotta give Mo props for keeping it 100 about the reason. Why can't a girl have her cake and eat it, too?
Speaking of, another thing the actress and comedienne addressed was the prejudice she faces ever since she went public with being in an open marriage. She says that while other celebrity couples like Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith, and Brangelina, never have to defend their reportedly open marriages, Mo's is looked at with pity. “'Oh, we hope Mo’Nique not gon’ let him just use her like that,'” she recalled people saying behind her back.  “Because society looks at me and they see a woman that looks like [she] couldn’t possibly have a man that looks like that if there was not something else involved in it…No one knew that it wasn’t Sidney’s idea to have an open marriage. It was mine.”

Power to you, sister.

Learn more about Mo'Nique's thoughts on marriage with BET Breaks, below:

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