Hip-hop superstar duo Salt-N-Pepa is fighting back against claims that women can’t be mothers and still achieve their dreams… and along the way, one of them revealed that her journey included being pressured to have an abortion.
Cheryl “Salt” James appeared with her rap partner Sandra “Pepa” Denton on the Tamron Hall Show, and Billboard showed an advance clip, featuring the duo responding to the notion that women can’t have successful careers while being mothers.
“They still sayin’ that?” Denton said. “And that was why we are true to who we are. They could recognize ’cause we wanted to be moms and we was moms. We said, ‘We can do it’ and whatever came my way, I handled it, which was taking the good with the bad … ’cause someone has to do it! When they think it can’t, they panic, the labels and people. ‘Oh my god, how are you gonna? The sales! Sales, sales!’ But you know, we did it.”
James then chimed in, added that she knows firsthand how intimidated industry executives are by mothers.
“They do get scared. I don’t think I’ve ever said this out loud, oooh Tamron!,” she said. “I was actually asked to have an abortion — I won’t say by who — but to your point, yeah, you just have to know that it’s something that you’re capable of handling if you want a kid and you want to have a career. And it’s definitely harder.”
Numerous celebrities have spoken out about having been pressured to have (or forced into having) abortions. Yet women have, time and time again, proven that they have been able to have successful careers while being mothers.
Actress Renee Elise Goldsberry received a Tony award for her role as Angelica Schuyler in the Broadway show “Hamilton,” and thanked her husband and children in her speech, saying it proved she could be a mother and still win. Catherine Zeta-Jones was pregnant while filming “Chicago,” for which she won an Oscar, and “Wonder Woman” star Gal Gadot was pregnant during filming.
Far from holding her back, James said her daughter made her life — and career — better. “Having my daughter, besides finding Jesus, is the best thing that I’ve ever experienced, my kids,” she said. “Like, I needed that lil’ baby in my life, you know? She kept me company on the road.”
