Da Brat, a popular female rapper from the ’90s and co star of Brat Loves Judy, is expecting her first child with wife Jesseca Harris-Dupart at the age of 48.
The rapper revealed the news to People and posed with her baby bump for some fun maternity photos. The rapper, whose given name is Shawntae Harris, said that there was definitely a learning curve when it came to having a child so late in life.
“It’s been quite a journey,” she said, “there’s a lot of stuff we learned about women over the age of 40.” She also went on the show Sherri and revealed the baby’s sonogram photo.
The couple, who star in the WE TV show together, were married about a year ago in a lavish ceremony ago at the Horse Mansion located in Fairburn, Georgia. Harris-Dupart is the CEO of a hair care products company, and the couple made a joke about “extending our family” for marketing, but they said the response they got was huge.
“It was like, ‘Oh my God do we want to actually have kids, and if we do, girl, we better hurry up!'” Da Brat said. While this is the rapper’s first child, Harris-Dupart already had three children. Da Brat said she never even thought about taking the step until she met her wife.
“I started looking at life so differently,” she said. “I was like, I want a little me with you. Something special from the both of us that we can share and raise and love unconditionally.” At first, she wasn’t very keen on the idea of carrying a child to term, saying “nothing’s gonna come out of me!”
After a while though she was convinced, with a little nudging from Harris-Dupart.
“We had a little tug-o-war in the beginning…but I felt like she should have the experience,” Da wife said. “She is so nurturing.”
The road to pregnancy was not an easy one. Da Brat decided to carry the child because Harris-Dupart was dealing with some health issues after they retrieved her eggs. The rapper had to have surgery for some polyp removal before the embryo could even be transferred.
At first things were going fine but then came a miscarriage.
“I had never been so excited about something that I didn’t even know I wanted,” Da Brat said. “I fell in love with the idea and then it was all snatched away from me. The couple used an “eager entrepreneur” as an egg donor and fortunately “quite a few” eggs were left following the loss of the first pregnancy.
Now, Da Brat said, she’s very emotional about every aspect of life.
“Everything makes me cry. If someone wins American Idol, I cry. I’m like, I’m tougher than that!”
Season 3 of Brat Loves Judy premieres on April 27 on WE TV.
