Danielle Sylvester: Teenage Runaway to Best-Selling Author

This week, Bunnie sits down with Danielle Sylvester, a raw and real storyteller who's gone viral on social media for good reason. Danielle shares her wild journey of dropping out at 14, running away by 16, and getting into dancing at a young age. She gets brutally honest about her past including messy relationships, battling addiction, and the realities of parenting with empathy, respect, and clear boundaries. Danielle’s wife, Tina, also joins in to share the juicy story of how they met, their relationship dynamic, and the secret behind their lasting love. Danielle’s new book, Not a Dr. Just a Mom, is out now and it's a must-read about parenting and relationships in general. Danielle: TikTok https://www.tiktok.com/@sylvester_danielle_?lang=en | Book https://www.amazon.com/Not-Dr-Just-Mom-boundaries/dp/B0DT5YN5QT?source=ps-sl-shoppingads-lpcontext&ref_=fplfs&psc=1&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER | IG https://www.instagram.com/sylvester_danielle_/?hl=en Watch Full Episodes & More: www.dumbblondeunrated.com

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Speaker 00

  Listen, nobody wants to give their money away to ridiculous bank fees. It's your money. You shouldn't have to pay somebody just to keep it in an account. That's why I like what Chime is doing. There are no overdraft fees, no monthly fees, and no minimum balance fees. You can also get 5% cash back on your Chime card in a category you choose, like gas or groceries, while building credit through your everyday spending with no credit check. And if you're ever in a pinch, SpotMe lets you overdraft up to $200 fee-free. To me, banking should make managing your money easier, not nickel and dime you every chance it gets. So if you're tired of ridiculous fees, Chime is definitely worth checking out. Join the millions who are already banking fee-free with America's number one choice for banking.

• 0:42Speaker 00

  Head to chime.com/bunny. That's chime.com/b-u-n-n-i-e. Sign up now. It only takes a few minutes.

• 0:49Speaker 01

  Chime is a fintech, not a bank. Banking services and Chime card provided by Chime's bank partners. Qualifying direct deposits required. Terms and limits apply. Go to chime.com/disclosures for details.

• 1:01Speaker 00

  Y'all know I love being comfortable, especially when it gets cold. That's why I'm loving Bombas this time of year. They make the absolute best socks, slippers, and winter footwear to keep you warm and cozy all season long. I love their plush gripper socks and cushy sundae slippers for lounging around the house. And when I'm running errands, their water-resistant suede booties are just as comfortable. Bombas also makes buttery breathable underwear and perfectly fitted t-shirts that make the ultimate comfiest first layer. Plus, they have incredible gifts for everyone on your list. From ultra-warm merino wool socks to high-performance sports socks for runners and skiers. Best of all, for every item you purchase, Bombas donates an essential clothing item to someone facing housing insecurity. With over 200 million items donated so far,

• 1:46Speaker 00

  head over to bombas.com/bu-n-n-i-e and use the code BUNNY for 20% off your first purchase. That's B-O-M-B-A-S dot com. Code bunny at checkout. Hey guys, I need to ask you a question. I want to know, why in the hell are you not on Patreon? I don't think you guys even realize how much content we have on Patreon. Let me break it down for you. We have the bunny XO.

• 2:10Bunnie XO?

  Show. We have Meet the Deportes. We have Popaganda. We have more shows that we're adding. And not to mention, we have the visuals of the podcast. Head over to www.patreon.com backslash dumb blonde podcast and sign up. Bunny XO.

• 2:28Bunnie XO?

  Bunny XO.

• 2:39Bunnie XO?

  Is this thing on? What's up you sexy motherfuckers? Welcome to another episode of dumb blonde. Today I have one of my girls here and I'm so happy to finally sit down with her. This has been a long time coming. Yeah. She has a great story. I can't wait for you guys to hear it. I can't wait to hear it. Dani Sylvester in the house, baby.

• 3:07Speaker 03

  Hi, everybody. It's nice to be here. I'm so excited. It's finally here.

• 3:12Bunnie XO?

  It's seriously, she was supposed to come on the podcast a couple of weeks ago, but I fucking got the neurovirus for eating some oysters.

• 3:19Speaker 03

  Oh, it was some oysters.

• 3:21Bunnie XO?

  I I'm assuming, but I'm telling you, I've only gotten sick. I've been eating oysters my whole life. I've only gotten sick off oysters twice and that neurovirus virus was the second time and I didn't know that oysters caused fucking neurovirus until and then I felt so much better though, because you're like, I've had this. It's all right. I get it. And I'm like, how long did it last?

• 3:41Speaker 03

  Yeah. I'm like, oh God, it was awful. It ran through our house. Our whole entire house had it. And then unfortunately we gave it to one of our kittens.

• 3:49Bunnie XO?

  Yeah. And when you told me that I was like, oh, because Chachi had been laying with me the whole time. So I was like, oh my God, I hope this fucking dog does not ever feel like I did.

• 3:56Speaker 03

  Look at him.

• 3:58Bunnie XO?

  Yeah. This is why we tell him we're going to work because he's literally grown up sitting here.

• 4:03Speaker 03

  I know. I love him.

• 4:04Bunnie XO?

  No, he's the best.

• 4:05Speaker 03

  I'm a big fan of his.

• 4:05Bunnie XO?

  Oh, he's the best. I'm so happy that you're here because I stumbled upon you probably like two years ago.

• 4:14Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 4:14Bunnie XO?

  And I was like, who is this beautiful beast? I was like, she is so gorgeous, but not only that, like, I just love that, you know, you're married to Tina. You guys are very, you know, like, hey, this is our relationship. This is who we are. If you don't like us, we don't give a fuck. You know, because TikTok can be so fucking brutal.

• 4:34Speaker 03

  Mm hmm.

• 4:35Bunnie XO?

  And then I also love the relationship with your daughter, too. I think it's just amazing. And so I would like to learn a little bit about you.

• 4:42Speaker 03

  Oh, okay.

• 4:43Bunnie XO?

  So let's take it back. You grew up in, you were, you grew up in Maryland, right?

• 4:47Speaker 03

  I did. I grew up in Maryland, um, by my mother, a single mom of five.

• 4:53Bunnie XO?

  Mm hmm.

• 4:53Speaker 03

  I'm the middle. Um, and, you know, we house hopped a lot. As I just came out on that story of showing everybody where I lived. And, um, yeah, it was, it was big struggles. But I learned how to make a community within my circle. And that was my brother, my sister, and now my younger sister and brother. And, um, I think that helped me become who I am today.

• 5:20Bunnie XO?

  Hmm.

• 5:21Speaker 03

  Um, but I don't know, I.

• 5:24Bunnie XO?

  Were you close with your mom?

• 5:28Speaker 03

  Growing up, I developed this, um,

• 5:34Speaker 03

  this type of, I don't know how to really explain it. So my mom was very physically abusive.

• 5:41Bunnie XO?

  Oh.

• 5:42Speaker 03

  Verbally abusive and.

• 5:44Bunnie XO?

  To all five of you or just you?

• 5:46Speaker 03

  All of us, all of us, all of us. And as a white woman in Maryland, having biracial children and friends like not accepting her because she has black children and the black community not accepting her because she's white, it just was really hard for her. So I don't think that she knew how to navigate those emotions and feelings. So she took it out on us. Mom, I'm sorry if you are hearing this because I know we are in a better place today. So this is just.

• 6:12Bunnie XO?

  I think it paints a picture of the journey, though, also of like the growth. And we'll get to that point with your mom, too. But I mean, what happened in the past is.

• 6:19Speaker 03

  When we talk about. Um, how we are today is just, we're better. But it took a long time for us to get here. It's, there was a lot of times where social services were called because we were dirty. We're not fed well. Um, she was a white woman, didn't know how to take care of, you know, mixed children's hair. So we went to school with our hair nappy. Sometimes we went to school with cat pee and cat poop on our, our clothing and.

• 6:48Bunnie XO?

  Was she always gone because she was working?

• 6:50Speaker 03

  She worked a lot. It worked a lot, but whenever social services came, I feel like I'm like all over the place, not like tailing in the story.

• 6:58Bunnie XO?

  No, you're okay. You're good. You're painting a picture.

• 6:59Speaker 03

  Whenever social services would come, we would run, we would hide. And that is where the question of, did you have like a great relationship with your mom comes in? It's like, I don't know if it was a great relationship. I just knew my loyalty lied to her. I, it doesn't matter how often she beat us, how often she said horrible things to us, how often we didn't eat. I still loved my mom, like in my eyes, she was God to me.

• 7:28Bunnie XO?

  She was all you knew.

• 7:29Speaker 03

  She was all, me and my siblings and my mom were all we knew at that time. Because the outside world didn't accept us as off, I mean, they didn't accept us as much as I would like to say that they did, but.

• 7:42Bunnie XO?

  Was there segregation, is that the right word, uh, in Maryland during that time?

• 7:48Speaker 03

  I don't, I don't necessarily want to say that was segregation. I think that was a lack of insight on people's upbringing. I think that, um, like we, I went to school with white kids, Asians and, and black kids. But being mixed was a different world because you didn't know exactly where you fit.

• 8:10Bunnie XO?

  Where you belonged.

• 8:11Speaker 03

  It's, the black kids knew exactly who they were, their upbringing, how to do their hair, how to dress, how to speak. White kids knew exactly what to do in the same. Same elements, but when it came to me, I was like, okay, I have a single white mom raising me the best that she can, and I lack this part of my identity. And it was hard, it was hard.

• 8:39Bunnie XO?

  Did you ever get to meet your dad? Or did you know?

• 8:41Speaker 03

  Yeah, so I did get to meet my dad, my dad a few times. And when I was younger. And every time I interacted with him, it was just chaotic. My mom, my mom has told us horrible stories about my dad. And then when we met him, we were terrified. We were, we were scared. We were like, oh, my God, he's gonna, he's gonna kill us. Uh, he's gonna beat the shit out of you. Um, we were told at one point that my dad tried to assassinate us. And that's why, um, we, we left or she moved. And it was, it was very chaotic. And then.

• 9:26Bunnie XO?

  It's just hurtful for parents to lay that on their kids' shoulders at such a young age.

• 9:32Speaker 03

  And that is why I am the parent that I am when it comes to talking shit about my child's father.

• 9:39Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 9:39Speaker 03

  I, now that I'm a little older, I, I mean, she's a little older. We can have honest conversations because she's dealing with the adult version of him.

• 9:49Bunnie XO?

  Right.

• 9:50Speaker 03

  Um, but growing up, I did not tell her shit.

• 9:53Bunnie XO?

  Yeah, because you learned about how that made you feel as a child.

• 9:57Speaker 03

  Yeah, it was, it was, it was insane. It was crazy, but.

• 10:00Bunnie XO?

  To your siblings, were you like the protector? Who, what was your role in the family?

• 10:05Speaker 03

  I am the little big sister.

• 10:07Bunnie XO?

  No.

• 10:08Speaker 03

  I am the little big sister. I am the middle. Uh, but my big brother and my big sister look at me as their parent. The parental figure, I should say. Um, and then my. Little siblings look at me as their big sister. So it's kind of, it's a different dynamic with both of them because we come from different letters. My brother, my sister and I, we have the same father and mother. And then my little brother and my little sister have the same mother and same father.

• 10:39Bunnie XO?

  Gotcha.

• 10:41Bunnie XO?

  It's all right. I get it. There's four of me in my family and we all have different my, we have, I have my sister who's from my mom and then my brother who's from my dad, different mom. And then I have my younger sister who's from my stepmom and my dad. So I get it.

• 10:55Speaker 03

  It's hectic.

• 10:56Bunnie XO?

  I feel like, when were you born? What year?

• 10:58Speaker 03

  Eighty-four.

• 10:58Bunnie XO?

  Yeah. Okay. So I'm eighty. So it's like that generation of parents, like what the fuck was wrong with them?

• 11:03Speaker 03

  What, what were you doing?

• 11:05Bunnie XO?

  What the fuck was going on in the eighties?

• 11:08Speaker 03

  They just wasn't given the tools.

• 11:09Bunnie XO?

  No.

• 11:10Speaker 03

  They wasn't given the tools.

• 11:11Bunnie XO?

  It's not even that. They weren't given the tools, but even if they were given the tools, they're not going to fucking apply them. They're the most honorary generation I've ever met.

• 11:19Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 11:19Bunnie XO?

  Like, they are so honorary. Like, they think they know everything and they didn't do anything wrong and they only raised you the best they knew how and...

• 11:27Speaker 03

  Because life was what it was. It is, it was so black and white for them.

• 11:31Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 11:32Speaker 03

  And now there, there's so many different areas to explore. There are so many different people. There is outlets where you can actually learn and educate yourself. So

• 11:41Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 11:42Speaker 03

  They're just like, no, that's, that's new. That new generation is now.

• 11:48Bunnie XO?

  New age. They call it like the new age.

• 11:49Speaker 03

  The new age. Like, what are you learning?

• 11:51Bunnie XO?

  Growing up, whenever CPS was called so many times, did you guys ever get taken from your mom?

• 11:56Speaker 03

  No. We never, we never got taken away from my mom.

• 11:59Bunnie XO?

  Still scary though, to have these people invading your privacy.

• 12:02Speaker 03

  It was. It was very scary. But I'm, we never were taken away from my mom, but we did get placed on her. Like, we were living in hotels or we got evicted. So there was many times where we were living with my mom's best friends or aunts, uncles, um, my mom's boss.

• 12:26Bunnie XO?

  Just no stability.

• 12:27Speaker 03

  Yeah. No.

• 12:28Bunnie XO?

  None.

• 12:28Speaker 03

  None. Um, my brother moved out when he was fifteen. My sister moved out when she was originally fourteen. Uh, I went with my first family when I was eleven and stayed and then went back with my mom. And then I completely left when I was sixteen. So it was a lot of...

• 12:51Speaker 03

  Misplacements, but never taken away in the, in the, in the system.

• 12:56Bunnie XO?

  Right, correct. Um, so take me on, you know, a little bit older. As you guys are going through all of these hardships, you know, are you in school? You know, how was education like?

• 13:10Speaker 03

  No.

• 13:11Bunnie XO?

  It seems like it was just complete chaos.

• 13:15Speaker 03

  Chaos. Uh, my mom instilled work ethics.

• 13:18Bunnie XO?

  Right.

• 13:19Speaker 03

  And not education. I quit school ninth grade. I have a ninth grade education, um, which I went back and got my GE day.

• 13:29Bunnie XO?

  Yay, good for you.

• 13:31Speaker 03

  But school was not a priority at all. If I woke up and was like, oh, I don't feel like it. She's just like, make sure the house clean. Make sure that you take the food out. That's it.

• 13:42Bunnie XO?

  Wow.

• 13:43Speaker 03

  It was not a priority at all. My daughter is one of the first in my, my siblings. Um, generation that graduated high school.

• 13:52Bunnie XO?

  Oh, I love that. That speaks volumes of the mom that you are. I can't wait to get to her. So you said that you got pregnant when you were 16. So, or I'm sorry, you moved out when you were 16. Take me all the way up to there. So, you know, you're not going to school. You dropped out in ninth grade, which is like 14, right?

• 14:10Speaker 03

  I was 15, yeah.

• 14:11Bunnie XO?

  Yeah. What's going on in that whole area of time?

• 14:14Speaker 03

  Nothing. I just, you know, I was getting suspended every other week. I was fighting.

• 14:21Speaker 03

  I just didn't find, um, interest in school, even growing, like growing up, it was just hard to even get my homework assignments done. Cause I didn't have anybody to help me with my assignments. I was in speech because I had a crazy lisp, which I still struggle with today. Um, so school was just hard. It was just very hard for me. And, um, there was a point where I just stopped going to school. My mom really didn't care. And, um, I got a job with her at a convenience store. It was a gas station. And.

• 15:03Speaker 03

  I just remember my mom always saying, if you work hard, like me, my mom's working three jobs. She was working at Cracker Barrel, Hys, and I think it was like a cleaning service at this time. It was like, if you work hard like me, you can, you could just have money and you can do this. And I'm just like, this is not living, like, girl.

• 15:21Bunnie XO?

  You're like, Mom, what are you talking about?

• 15:22Speaker 03

  What the fuck is this? And I was working at Hys. I came home one day and I was like, you know what, Mom? I'm going to make you dinner. I called her on the phone and I was like, Mom, where's, can I take the ground beef out? And can I, you know, make you burgers? And she was like, sure, just make sure that you clean up. So in my head, and it's kind of crazy because I think about this now, because to this day, I clean as I cook.

• 15:53Bunnie XO?

  So do I.

• 15:54Speaker 03

  I clean as I cook. I, I.

• 15:57Bunnie XO?

  It drives me crazy when people cook and don't clean up after themselves as they're going. Like, how do you do that?

• 16:03Speaker 03

  It drives me fucking insane. But I don't even think it's because that's my.

• 16:08Bunnie XO?

  It's trauma.

• 16:08Speaker 03

  I want it. Well, it's because my mom came home that day. I asked her if I could make her hamburgers for dinner and I presented her with the plate. Apparently I just did not clean up. I didn't, I know I didn't, but she just said, God damn it, Danielle, it's a fucking mess. And she's, she took the plate of burgers, threw it. She and I got into an argument and I, at that moment, at 16, I was like, bitch, I'm the fuck out of here. No, Mom, I'm not calling you, bitch. I'm out of here.

• 16:40Bunnie XO?

  In that time, that's what you were thinking.

• 16:43Speaker 03

  I tried to call my brother. She cut the phone line, so I couldn't contact my brother because I was like, I'm on my way. And I walked, I wanted, I walked.

• 16:58Speaker 03

  Maybe ten miles.

• 17:00Bunnie XO?

  Wow.

• 17:01Speaker 03

  Ten, like ten miles, sixteen in the middle of the night.

• 17:04Bunnie XO?

  Oh, and she didn't care? She let you go or just?

• 17:07Speaker 03

  She did not ever come for me.

• 17:08Bunnie XO?

  Wow.

• 17:10Speaker 03

  No.

• 17:10Bunnie XO?

  And that, that in a way, that in a sense is kind of a, that in a way is kind of a sense of abandonment.

• 17:16Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 17:16Bunnie XO?

  You know, because when your parents don't come after, I, I was opposite. I would run away and my parents would file police reports to cover their own ass. They didn't really want me home, but it was like if they wanted to look to the, you know, community like they were caring parents, so they would file the fucking police reports.

• 17:31Speaker 03

  Parents.

• 17:32Bunnie XO?

  But yeah, but it's still hurtful when you leave and your parent is, just lets you go.

• 17:38Speaker 03

  Yeah, I was already in Philadelphia when she decided that she wanted to come and, and see me and see how I was doing. It was probably like nine months after I left.

• 17:49Bunnie XO?

  Wow.

• 17:50Speaker 03

  Nine months.

• 17:51Bunnie XO?

  So what did you do when you left at sixteen?

• 17:53Speaker 03

  Um, I walked to my best friend's house, called my brother, went to his house. I stayed with him and his wife for a very long time. I ended up trying to sell drugs, um, to provide for me. And I met my child's father, Theory's dad. And he was like, you're beautiful. I'm like, I want to be a model. He was like, I'm from Philly. I, I have these connections. So of course I went with him. I was like, you know what? You're going to make me a superstar. You're going to make me a model. You're going to make me, my big dreams come true. Like this big Philadelphia guy.

• 18:32Bunnie XO?

  Mm-hmm.

• 18:33Speaker 03

  And, um.

• 18:34Bunnie XO?

  And this was how long after you left home?

• 18:36Speaker 03

  Uh, probably like six, six to seven months.

• 18:39Bunnie XO?

  Okay, so it happened all in the same timeframe?

• 18:41Speaker 03

  Like the whole first year.

• 18:42Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 18:43Speaker 03

  I was, so it happened.

• 18:48Bunnie XO?

  How old was he?

• 18:49Speaker 03

  Ha, okay.

• 18:55Bunnie XO?

  Cause you're sixteen.

• 18:56Speaker 03

  I was sixteen when I first met him.

• 18:58Bunnie XO?

  And I heard Tina giggle over there.

• 19:02Speaker 03

  I was sixteen when I first met him. Um, but when we moved to Philadelphia, I was seventeen. He told me he was twenty-two.

• 19:12Speaker 03

  I didn't find out he was thirty until his sister was like, you know, he's married? Do you know he he's he's not twenty something years old?

• 19:21Bunnie XO?

  Oh, my gosh, a thirty year old with a sixteen year old?

• 19:26Speaker 03

  Well, yeah.

• 19:28Bunnie XO?

  I just got goosebumps.

• 19:29Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 19:29Bunnie XO?

  That's rough.

• 19:30Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 19:31Bunnie XO?

  So he pretty, I don't want to talk, I don't want to say anything bad, but he kind of preyed on you.

• 19:36Speaker 03

  Yeah, so him and I, we have talked about it.

• 19:39Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 19:40Speaker 03

  We talked about it on my podcast and and

• 19:45Speaker 03

  theory was kind of shocked about all these details that were coming out. And I was grateful that I didn't tell that story because it was his story to tell about where he was coming from. And

• 19:56Bunnie XO?

  I love that you allowed him that space to do that.

• 19:58Speaker 03

  Thank gosh, because if not, I feel like if I would have

• 20:02Bunnie XO?

  Because a lot of people wouldn't have given that grace.

• 20:05Speaker 03

  I

• 20:10Speaker 03

  Tina. I

• 20:12Bunnie XO?

  Tina, you want to get up here, Tina?

• 20:14Speaker 03

  It was a challenge. It was a challenge. It was a challenge.

• 20:17Bunnie XO?

  How did that? Okay, so, okay, let's, we'll, we'll get to that in a second. But so he is sixteen, you're sixteen, he's thirty. You, how long after you guys were together, did you find that out?

• 20:27Speaker 03

  So, oh, so, so he was twenty nine when I was sixteen.

• 20:31Bunnie XO?

  Okay.

• 20:31Speaker 03

  I was seventeen and then he turned thirty.

• 20:34Bunnie XO?

  Okay. Still the same thing, Danielle.

• 20:36Speaker 03

  Yeah, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know.

• 20:40Bunnie XO?

  I love that you're, I love that you were trying to make it sound a little better, but there's nothing you can do to make

• 20:47Speaker 03

  There is nothing.

• 20:48Bunnie XO?

  My dad married, listen, my dad was thirty something years old and married a seventeen year old. So I get it.

• 20:54Speaker 03

  I

• 20:56Bunnie XO?

  Thirty six, actually, I think he was thirty six when he married.

• 20:59Speaker 03

  I do that because, um.

• 21:07Speaker 03

  I do it because I want to protect an image for my child's sanity.

• 21:15Bunnie XO?

  Of course, and I will go lightly on that situation, but I do think it's it's part of your story.

• 21:21Speaker 03

  It is.

• 21:21Bunnie XO?

  And, you know, people need to see like how far you've come in life and like this isn't to bash him at all.

• 21:27Speaker 03

  Oh, no, no.

• 21:28Bunnie XO?

  Back then, it was like, I don't know, we can cut this out if it doesn't fit. If we can't say it on social media because I know we have to.

• 21:36Speaker 03

  I'm all over anyway.

• 21:38Bunnie XO?

  But back then, I feel like, I'm trying to word this the right way. Older men, right. It was like, if you think about it, Little Kim, okay, her hardcore album where she's literally squatting down. She was sixteen or seventeen years old. You know, like it was, it, men weren't held to a different standard that they are today. And they were allowed to marry young. Jerry Lee Lewis married his fucking thirteen year old cousin.

• 22:03Speaker 03

  Ellis Brestling.

• 22:04Bunnie XO?

  Not giving this man a pass. I'm just saying it was a different time.

• 22:09Speaker 03

  It was, it was, it was a different time, definitely, but.

• 22:14Bunnie XO?

  So when you found out this information, how did this make you feel? Because you've, you guys have been together, what, like a year before you found this out?

• 22:22Speaker 03

  Probably, yeah.

• 22:23Bunnie XO?

  Okay.

• 22:24Speaker 03

  Around that.

• 22:26Speaker 03

  I don't, I was so young.

• 22:28Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 22:28Speaker 03

  So I don't know exactly how I felt in the moment. I just felt I know how I feel today about how I should feel. So I'm trying to not allow that to mess up my, my, my feelings of that when I found out. Um, maybe, I probably was shocked.

• 22:50Bunnie XO?

  Yeah. Well, I mean, you were lied to, so anybody that's finding out a secret like that is like, holy shit.

• 22:57Speaker 03

  And we were already going through it. He was already cheating on me. He was already not coming home. He was already not. So I think I was dealing with all of that in the same sense. Um, and that was the time that I found out I had my, my STD. And that was, that's what initiated his sister telling me like, I don't know what the, what the hell? You know, he's not twenty something years old. He's a thirty year old man and he's married.

• 23:25Bunnie XO?

  Where was the wife in all of this?

• 23:26Speaker 03

  So she, they were separated.

• 23:28Bunnie XO?

  Okay.

• 23:31Speaker 03

  Rightfully so.

• 23:32Bunnie XO?

  Right.

• 23:33Speaker 03

  So she would drop little Sean off, well, we'll drop, she would drop his son off. And yeah, she didn't say anything to me. She didn't say anything to Crystal. She wouldn't talk to anybody. She would just drop the baby off and that would be, that would be it.

• 23:51Bunnie XO?

  So.

• 23:52Speaker 03

  No interactions with me, no interactions with Sean. It was just, I knew he had a son.

• 23:57Bunnie XO?

  Right.

• 23:58Speaker 03

  But I didn't know that he had other children.

• 23:59Bunnie XO?

  Right. Oh, he had other children, other than the son?

• 24:02Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 24:03Bunnie XO?

  This is mad.

• 24:04Speaker 03

  Didn't find out that until I was pregnant.

• 24:08Bunnie XO?

  Okay, so let's rewind real quick. You said that you found out that you had an STD. How did this come about?

• 24:13Speaker 03

  Okay, so um, my girlfriend was doing my hair. We were about to go to a strip club. That's a different story. We were.

• 24:20Bunnie XO?

  Were you dancing at sixteen?

• 24:22Speaker 03

  I was. I was, I was dancing as soon as I got to Philly.

• 24:24Bunnie XO?

  That's a huge thing you left out, Danny.

• 24:26Speaker 03

  Yeah, no, I was dancing when I was sixteen. I was a few months shy of seventeen. It doesn't matter. I, I, I'm always on this fence.

• 24:34Bunnie XO?

  Danny, I love you. Let's just call it for what it is, baby, okay? You shouldn't have been there anyways.

• 24:42Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 24:43Bunnie XO?

  It's okay.

• 24:44Speaker 03

  I'm always dancing on this little teeter fence. I'm like, I have sixteen, I have to be seventeen.

• 24:52Bunnie XO?

  So let's, let's get in, let's get into the STD first and then we'll talk about the club. I just keep, she keeps dropping these, she keeps dropping these bombs on me and I'm, you know what, you're like me. When I talk about my trauma or shit I've been through, I'm like, oh yeah.

• 25:05Speaker 03

  How, it's, it's, it's all over the place.

• 25:09Bunnie XO?

  Girl, I'm writing a.

• 25:10Speaker 03

  One.

• 25:11Bunnie XO?

  No, I'm writing a book right now and it is the hardest thing that I've ever, I remember something new every time. I get like a fucking revelation and I'm like, oh yeah, that happened too. And like, it's so hard to recount your life, but you're doing a great job.

• 25:24Speaker 03

  It's funny because I, this is how I started my book that I just published.

• 25:29Bunnie XO?

  Yeah, and we'll talk about that too.

• 25:30Speaker 03

  I tried to do my memoir and I, it was impossible. I was like, oh, well, this and this and this. I'm like, I don't know how to piece, piece that together. Uh, it's done. Let's do a parental book.

• 25:42Bunnie XO?

  Yeah, aww. But you need to tell your story too, because, and you can also get like a ghostwriter that can help you and that way it'll like reel it in and stuff like that.

• 25:50Speaker 03

  It's an interesting fucking story.

• 25:51Bunnie XO?

  Yeah, I mean, I'm fucking intrigued. All right, let's get back to the STD.

• 25:57Speaker 03

  Let's talk about your dirty cunt bitch.

• 26:01Bunnie XO?

  No.

• 26:03Speaker 03

  Yeah, so.

• 26:04Bunnie XO?

  No, I want to know about the strip club. Like, we have a very similar life story. It's very crazy to hear. I left home at four. I don't know if you know, but I left home at 14. Like, I was dancing at a very young age. I was hanging out with pimps in fucking strip clubs at 16. So I get it. I get it, baby.

• 26:21Speaker 03

  I was getting my hair done and I, I was like, oh my God, like, like I am literally stringing my, my hoo-ha with my tights at this time. And my girl Ebony, she was like, what the hell is wrong with you? And I'm like, I don't know. Like, I'm really itchy. Like, I'm, I'm itchy. And Sean came in up the steps and she was like, Sean, did you give my girl Estee Day? And I was like, Estee Day? No, which like, no, I just like, wearing these tight ass clothes. She was like, Danielle, I think that you have Estee Day. So Sean was like, go your trip and get the fuck out of my house. Like, he kicked my girlfriend out and everything.

• 27:02Bunnie XO?

  That's how you know he's guilty.

• 27:03Speaker 03

  I was, I should have known.

• 27:05Bunnie XO?

  I mean, you're young, baby. You didn't know yet.

• 27:07Speaker 03

  Gullible.

• 27:08Bunnie XO?

  You know now.

• 27:08Speaker 03

  I believe him. But something in my, my soul was like, nah.

• 27:13Bunnie XO?

  Listen, you know when your hoo-ha's off.

• 27:15Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 27:15Bunnie XO?

  Every girl does.

• 27:16Speaker 03

  So I, I went to the clinic. It was so ironic. My sister came up that following, I think it was like two days later. She just was like, um, I was like, my cooch is burning, blah, blah, blah. And she was like, how about, let's just go to the clinic. Went to the clinic. They were like, oh yeah, you got chlamydia.

• 27:36Speaker 03

  I was, I went crazy. Mind you, Sean did not come home after he kicked Ebony out the house. Like, he didn't come home for a week. So the whole time my sister got there to this point, he was not home. So I went to his sister, the only other person that I really knew in Philadelphia.

• 27:57Bunnie XO?

  I feel like your sister's the only one who kept it real with you though, too.

• 27:59Speaker 03

  Oh, yeah. Okay, let's, let's talk about my big sister. I'm her big sister, but she's, she's still always going to be my big sister. She always protects me. She's my ride or die.

• 28:09Bunnie XO?

  And that's his sister, right?

• 28:11Speaker 03

  My sister.

• 28:11Bunnie XO?

  That's your sister. Okay, gotcha. Okay.

• 28:13Speaker 03

  He has sisters too.

• 28:15Bunnie XO?

  Gotcha. Okay.

• 28:17Speaker 03

  And they were like, oh yeah, you got chlamydia. So my sister's like, this is what you're gonna do. This is what you're gonna say. You don't have to act crazy. Mind you, I'm a psychopath at that age. I'm

• 28:30Bunnie XO?

  Yeah, me too.

• 28:31Speaker 03

  Crazy. I don't want anybody to think that I was, oh, oh, ah, I was a psychopath.

• 28:39Bunnie XO?

  I mean, and rightfully so, though. If somebody gives you a STD, that's your fucking health that somebody is fucking with. And, and the betrayal.

• 28:47Speaker 03

  So when he found, so I went to his sister and I was telling her what happened. She was just like, Danielle, he's not like, how old do you think this man is? And I was like, this, this, he's 22 years old, 23. And she's like, no, he's 30 years old. His baby mom is his wife. They are not divorced, da, da, da. And I was like, oh shit. Like, who the fuck is this man? So my sister's there and she's like, you know what? I'm gonna stay until you, you figure this out, until you feel better.

• 29:26Speaker 03

  A couple of days later, Sean did come home and he just was like, that's a lie. You probably was sleeping with this maintenance man. I'm like, we don't even have a

• 29:37Bunnie XO?

  We don't even have a maintenance man.

• 29:42Speaker 03

  He was like, you're, you're sleeping with a maintenance man. And I was like, what the hell? Like, it's like, no, I'm, I'm not, I never cheated on you. I never cheated on you.

• 29:51Bunnie XO?

  They always try to deflect.

• 29:52Speaker 03

  Um, so it was just chaos. My sister just kept on trying to force me to come back home with her and I was like, no, I'm gonna work it out with him. Him and I tried to work it out and then a month later.

• 30:11Speaker 03

  I got pregnant.

• 30:12Bunnie XO?

  All right, stay right there because we're gonna pick up from there. Take me on this journey of how you started dancing at such a young age.

• 30:17Speaker 03

  Oh, God. Okay, so I was working at Burger King. Let's talk about this. Okay.

• 30:20Bunnie XO?

  And that burger was my first job.

• 30:23Speaker 03

  So you know what is crazy? I always wanted to be a dancer. It I I did. I watched Anna Nicole. I was obsessed with her. I fucking loved her.

• 30:32Bunnie XO?

  I met her.

• 30:33Speaker 03

  You did? Shut up.

• 30:36Speaker 03

  When we would have family time with, you know, like my mom and because Tuesdays, regardless of how crazy and psychotic psychotic my mom was or abusive she was because of the lack of tools that she had when raising children, we still had Tuesday nights. We'd watch Rescue 911. We did family nights and we did talk. And they were always like, Danielle, what do you want to do when you get older? I'm like, I want to be an actress or I want to be a stripper. But let's put this in there before like.

• 31:05Bunnie XO?

  I get it. I have you heard the intro to my podcast?

• 31:09Bunnie XO?

  I literally say as a child, I just wanted to grow up and be hot.

• 31:13Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 31:13Bunnie XO?

  Like, that's all I wanted to do. I knew I could make money being hot somehow.

• 31:16Speaker 03

  We all want to be hot.

• 31:18Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 31:18Speaker 03

  Like, we all.

• 31:20Bunnie XO?

  We grew up in a generation of Playboy and Penthouse and, you know, Hustler for some people. And it's just like.

• 31:27Speaker 03

  Hustler?

• 31:27Bunnie XO?

  Yeah. For some people, listen, listen, we can't, we can't yuck anybody's yum. But, you know, Playboy and Penthouse, we grew up in an era where like glamour, like guest models, Victoria's Secret models were like supermodels, not fucking influencers.

• 31:43Speaker 03

  They're not.

• 31:43Bunnie XO?

  Not taking a dig, but I'm just talking like it was a completely different time. But Adriana Lemus, the Anna Nicole's, the fucking, uh, well, who's the girl from Guns N' Roses? Uh, his ex, Stephanie Seymour. Like, beautiful, right? Like, we were surrounded by nothing but fucking hotness.

• 32:01Speaker 03

  Beautiful, beautiful, sexy, unique looking women. Everybody looks the same. Like, we all look the same.

• 32:07Bunnie XO?

  Yeah. No, I think you're beautiful.

• 32:11Speaker 03

  You're beautiful. Tina has to say those things.

• 32:15Bunnie XO?

  Tina, you're just so beautiful.

• 32:19Bunnie XO?

  I can't wait till Tina gets up here.

• 32:21Speaker 03

  She's a star.

• 32:22Bunnie XO?

  Yeah, we love Tina.

• 32:24Speaker 03

  I fucking love her.

• 32:25Bunnie XO?

  We love Tina.

• 32:26Speaker 03

  I mean, so I'm trying to argue with her and then it's like.

• 32:31Bunnie XO?

  So the stripping.

• 32:32Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 32:32Bunnie XO?

  Grew up around beautiful women, watching beautiful women. She's so Bailey. So Bailey. She's so Gemini. I love it. But luckily, I have, I speak fluent Gemini, so I get it.

• 32:43Speaker 03

  Thank you.

• 32:44Bunnie XO?

  I will reel you back in, baby.

• 32:45Speaker 03

  Sorry. I need that. I need people to reel me back in, because I'm like, ah!

• 32:51Bunnie XO?

  I love it, though.

• 32:53Speaker 03

  So I was working at Burger King when I first got to Philadelphia, because Crystal, his sister, was making me work, which, obviously, you need to work if you're staying up at my house. You're a little kid. You need to work. You need some kind of structure. She couldn't put me to school, whatever. And my manager was doing this little ignorant ass thing. He was watching me put onion rings in the onion ring box wrong. And he had everybody in the back of the kitchen looking at me, doing it wrong. And then, when he confronted me, he confronted me in front of everybody. And I was like, no, fuck you. I don't need this bullshit. You should have told me in private. You should have corrected me when you see me do it. And I'm crying. And I left. And I was like, you know what, Sean?

• 33:37Speaker 03

  Like, I, I think I want to dance. I want to, I want to strip. I was like, oh, yeah, I can put you onto the rum keg. Like, I know a couple of people, my niece. So he put me onto his niece, went into the strip club, and that was it.

• 33:49Bunnie XO?

  So they hired you at sixteen, or did you lie about your age?

• 33:53Speaker 03

  No, I didn't lie about shit.

• 33:54Bunnie XO?

  And they still hired you?

• 33:56Speaker 03

  They didn't even ask me my age. Mr. Epps never asked me. And if, and I know there's

• 34:02Bunnie XO?

  It's such a different era.

• 34:03Speaker 03

  Because there's a lot of people that know about the rum keg in West Philly. And I think we all were at some point in time under the age.

• 34:12Bunnie XO?

  Was it totally nude or just topless?

• 34:14Speaker 03

  It was, no, it was, you didn't take any of your clothes off.

• 34:17Bunnie XO?

  Wow.

• 34:18Speaker 03

  It was just like five dollar lap dances around the bar.

• 34:20Bunnie XO?

  With clothes on?

• 34:21Speaker 03

  With, with your little

• 34:23Bunnie XO?

  A little like lingerie.

• 34:24Speaker 03

  Lingerie.

• 34:25Bunnie XO?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 34:25Speaker 03

  Um, I was, I was infamous for my teddies in sportswear.

• 34:29Bunnie XO?

  Hmm.

• 34:30Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 34:30Bunnie XO?

  Cause I know in Vegas, we had bar, uh, clubs out there that you could be 18, but it was, you had to be totally nude, which made no sense.

• 34:37Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 34:37Bunnie XO?

  So you could just strip if you were 18, but you had to show your butthole, you know, and but, and then all the 21 and up clubs were topless.

• 34:45Speaker 03

  Ah.

• 34:45Bunnie XO?

  So it was so fucking backwards.

• 34:47Speaker 03

  Yeah, I know. So, uh, there it was just, you just wore clothing and you just danced.

• 34:54Bunnie XO?

  Yeah. Would you take me to the first night that you danced?

• 34:56Speaker 03

  Oh, God.

• 34:57Bunnie XO?

  Do you remember it?

• 34:58Speaker 03

  I do. I still remember.

• 35:00Bunnie XO?

  I wanna hear about it.

• 35:00Speaker 03

  Um, I had this pink little like top on and it had little, little rhinestones on it and a pink little bottoms. I went to sit to the candy shop in Philly on South Street, which Joe still loves me to this day, cause I went there until my retiring days.

• 35:21Speaker 03

  And he's actually the one who helped me pick the name out Rookie.

• 35:25Bunnie XO?

  Rookie?

• 35:25Speaker 03

  Rookie was my first dance name.

• 35:27Bunnie XO?

  I love that.

• 35:28Speaker 03

  It was Rookie. I was a rookie. But not for too long. And, um, he helped me get a couple outfits and then I went to.

• 35:38Bunnie XO?

  Were you nervous?

• 35:39Speaker 03

  I was. I was very nervous.

• 35:42Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 35:42Speaker 03

  Um, so I went in, Sean brought me in. I seen Mr. Ups and he was like $15. The dressing room's upstairs. I got undressed. Everybody was like, oh my God, your boobs are so great. Your boobs are so great. This is before I had my implants done.

• 35:57Bunnie XO?

  Don't you love strippers? We're always hyping each other up.

• 35:59Speaker 03

  I don't think people understand the, the community in the strip club.

• 36:04Bunnie XO?

  Preach it.

• 36:04Speaker 03

  I am still very close friends.

• 36:06Bunnie XO?

  Industry, in the adult industry, women are so for each other.

• 36:10Speaker 03

  Yes, they are. And people are like, oh no, you guys have no morals, no value, and yeah.

• 36:15Bunnie XO?

  It's a lie.

• 36:16Speaker 03

  Girl, the lady at the grocery store is fucking your husband.

• 36:19Bunnie XO?

  Literally.

• 36:19Speaker 03

  Shut the fuck up.

• 36:20Bunnie XO?

  And will smile in your face while she's ringing up your groceries.

• 36:22Speaker 03

  These women are out here trying to hustle, bustle, make their fucking money.

• 36:25Bunnie XO?

  And don't give a fuck about your husband.

• 36:26Speaker 03

  Shit about, no, no, oh, sorry.

• 36:27Bunnie XO?

  Facts.

• 36:28Speaker 03

  Um, they don't give a shit about no men. Your man.

• 36:31Bunnie XO?

  Facts. I preach that all the time on this podcast. I always say that the, some of the most. Amazing women that I have in my life still to this day are in the sex industry.

• 36:41Speaker 03

  I'm still very close with my, my girls from the strip club days.

• 36:45Bunnie XO?

  It's like a sisterhood that's just unspoken.

• 36:48Speaker 03

  I call it our sorority because I never went to college. It's our sorority and we still bring up conversations and in-depth moments where we're just like, this was a pivotal moment for us. And it's, it's an amazing feeling. Like I see all my girls and we're doing all great things.

• 37:06Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 37:06Speaker 03

  Individually.

• 37:07Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 37:08Speaker 03

  You know, it's like, we're great people.

• 37:10Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 37:10Speaker 03

  Always have been.

• 37:11Bunnie XO?

  I love that.

• 37:12Speaker 03

  People in society have always condemned people into sex industry as horrific.

• 37:19Bunnie XO?

  Well, it's, it's crazy because the sex industry goes all the way back to Bible times, you know?

• 37:24Speaker 03

  Girl, let's not talk about that.

• 37:25Bunnie XO?

  It's like sex sells and it's always gonna be here and it's like you guys can frown upon it all you want, but the more you do, it just makes people want to be involved in it or know about it. So it's like, not saying that it's okay, like the trafficking part and stuff like that, like fuck that. But the, the women who are consensually doing this for themselves and for their college education or for their families or just because they fucking want to take their power back.

• 37:48Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 37:49Bunnie XO?

  Let them fucking live, man.

• 37:51Speaker 03

  It is a vehicle to your next destination of whomever you decide to be or whatever you desire to be. Like, all because you use something that was God given to you.

• 38:03Bunnie XO?

  Mm-hmm.

• 38:03Speaker 03

  Doesn't mean that you don't get to utilize it the way that you want to use it.

• 38:07Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 38:08Speaker 03

  All because I'm not using it the way you want me to use my body. Like, man, please.

• 38:12Bunnie XO?

  Yeah. I always say you'll, you'll always be, my favorite quote is you'll always be fond of me because I represent to you the sins you never had the courage to commit.

• 38:19Speaker 03

  Ooh.

• 38:20Bunnie XO?

  Yeah, like Oscar Wilde. It's a great fucking quote. So you're wearing this pink little rhinestone thing.

• 38:27Speaker 03

  She said, I know how to reel you back in.

• 38:30Bunnie XO?

  So we're wearing the pink little rhinestone thing.

• 38:32Speaker 03

  Yes, okay.

• 38:33Bunnie XO?

  Take me on to your first on the floor.

• 38:35Speaker 03

  Yes, so on the floor. I didn't even get on the floor first.

• 38:38Bunnie XO?

  Okay.

• 38:39Speaker 03

  They called me to the stage.

• 38:41Bunnie XO?

  Oh, no.

• 38:43Speaker 03

  Immediately, immediately, immediately to the stage. And it's like a kitty litter box. It was so small and it had those little wires around it. It was, it was horrible. And they were like, what song do you want? They ask you right then and there. They don't, it's not like they give you like a set list of all your songs that you prefer. They're like, what song do you want? And I'm like, Honey by Mariah.

• 39:08Bunnie XO?

  Oh, no.

• 39:12Speaker 03

  I was doing her dance and everything.

• 39:15Bunnie XO?

  On the stage?

• 39:19Speaker 03

  Yes, I was doing.

• 39:24Speaker 03

  And I made bank. Everybody around that bar gave me a five dollar dance.

• 39:31Bunnie XO?

  It's because you were green. Men love the newbies.

• 39:33Speaker 03

  Love green.

• 39:34Bunnie XO?

  They love the newbies.

• 39:36Speaker 03

  They loved it.

• 39:38Bunnie XO?

  Yeah, I tell all my girls that when they first get in the industry, I'm like, you're gonna make a ton of money the first six months because you're green. I was like, after that?

• 39:44Speaker 03

  They love it. Because I feel like us as women, we look at sexier women. We're like, oh, I like that. I like that. I want to be that. And we lose that.

• 39:54Bunnie XO?

  The innocence.

• 39:55Speaker 03

  Innocence.

• 39:56Bunnie XO?

  Mm hmm. Which is disgusting because men are just fucking hounds.

• 39:59Speaker 03

  I feel awful for you.

• 40:02Bunnie XO?

  Men are fucking just hounds and they can smell it, so.

• 40:05Speaker 03

  What the hell is wrong with them?

• 40:06Bunnie XO?

  Yeah, it's ridiculous. So did you continue to dance all the way up until you were pregnant?

• 40:10Speaker 03

  I danced all the way up until I was six months pregnant.

• 40:12Bunnie XO?

  Really?

• 40:13Speaker 03

  I did.

• 40:14Bunnie XO?

  Were you not showing?

• 40:15Speaker 03

  I was not showing as much, but I did where I was infamous for the little teddies. So the teddies would cover my stomach. And then when it start peeking through, they were like, are you pregnant? I was like, no.

• 40:32Bunnie XO?

  No, I've just gained weight. What are you trying to say?

• 40:34Speaker 03

  I think I was in denial for a very long time about being pregnant.

• 40:37Bunnie XO?

  When you found out you were pregnant?

• 40:39Speaker 03

  Yeah, that's.

• 40:39Bunnie XO?

  How did you feel?

• 40:42Speaker 03

  So I was in denial for a very long time. So this is how I found out I was pregnant. I feel like I take the long way around.

• 40:48Bunnie XO?

  You're okay.

• 40:49Speaker 03

  Um, thank you, family, for all these, for being the other Gemini.

• 40:54Speaker 03

  So I, my sister was still in Philadelphia at this time, or she came back. She came back. She came back because we had her son as well. And I felt different. We were smoking a little weed and I'm just like, ooh, like it's making me nauseous. And I was like, Jennifer, I had a dream that you were pregnant. And she was like, no, I just got off my period. And I was like, no, bitch, I think you are pregnant. Like your boobs are big. Saying everything that's happening to me. And I was like, just go get a pregnancy test. I'll take a pregnancy test for just so if you, if you're pregnant again.

• 41:29Bunnie XO?

  Not the gaslighting.

• 41:33Speaker 03

  So. We both take a pregnancy test and they came back not negative. They both came back negative. And later on that night, we just got a little bit more weed and I'm trying to smoke and I'm trying to eat some chicken. And I throw up everywhere. So my sister goes back in the bathroom. She pulls up the pregnancy test and pulls it up to the light. She was like, Danielle, there's two lines. And I was like, no, no, no. She was like, is this mine or yours? And I was like, I don't fucking know. I was like, it's probably yours because I had a dream.

• 42:08Speaker 03

  You're pregnant. She's like, well, you're throwing up everywhere. You're throwing up everywhere. So that next day, she took me to the clinic, the same clinic that Diana's with, Chlamydia. And they, they told me that I was pregnant. I cried and I cried and I cried. Sean came home and he was like, oh, we're going to take care of it together, blah, blah, blah. Disappeared. Man disappeared, disappeared. That like, he kept his clothes there. He, he went to work, never came home.

• 42:37Bunnie XO?

  For good?

• 42:40Speaker 03

  At that time, yes.

• 42:42Bunnie XO?

  Wow.

• 42:43Speaker 03

  Yeah. Um, he would call me and he was supposed to be helping me with rent, even though I couldn't.

• 42:53Bunnie XO?

  So what did you do when you couldn't dance anymore to, to?

• 42:56Speaker 03

  So I decided that I was going to give my daughter up for adoption to this church. And I was like, if I give her up for adoption to the church, I'll like be able to still live like sofa to sofa or wherever I need to go. I just don't want to go back home. I could not go back home to my mom.

• 43:17Speaker 03

  So I just was like, I'll just give her up for adoption. My sister got wind of that. I was giving my daughter up for adoption. And she was like, she came home, she came to Philly because she was living in Maryland. She came to Philly. I was already getting evicted because I couldn't pay my, my rent. She packed my whole entire fucking apartment and I'm crying. I'm like, I'm not going. Cussing her out. She grabbed me by my hair. Who put me in her car? Her Pontiac granddame.

• 43:46Bunnie XO?

  We love sister.

• 43:48Speaker 03

  Blazing snow everywhere. It was snow. And if you know Kelly, drive in Philly, it is so dangerous. My sister hates to drive. She was driving like, shut up.

• 44:03Speaker 03

  We finally get to Maryland.

• 44:06Bunnie XO?

  She was taking you back to mom's?

• 44:07Speaker 03

  No, she took me back home to me, I meant to her.

• 44:10Bunnie XO?

  Okay.

• 44:11Speaker 03

  Um, which was not a better living situation. Uh, her boyfriend at the time was a heroin addict. And my aunt caught wind of that and she was like, hey, how about like you come stay with me? I went to go stay with her. Uh, I talked to my other aunt and my uncle and they said that they would take my daughter. And I talked about it with Theory, Jennifer, my sister. She was like, that's better, you know, she's in the family. You can be able to see her whenever you want. And um, that's when that adoption process started. Um, and then when I gave birth to her. I was like, oh no, I'm gonna keep this little girl. It's my, it's my best friend. I seen her little foot and.

• 44:55Bunnie XO?

  How did you come up with the name?

• 44:57Speaker 03

  So me and her father came up with the name.

• 44:59Bunnie XO?

  Oh, so he reappeared.

• 45:00Speaker 03

  So this is, this is even before, like, this is when, like, he came and was telling me that he found an, oh damn, I missed the whole part. Um, so when he first found out I was getting evicted from the apartment, I got in contact with his sister. His sister got in contact with him when he was working at Holy Hands. And um, he came to the apartment and he was just like, we can keep her and blah, blah, blah. How about, you know, this name, this name, this name and this name? And we're listening to his favorite band, Groove Theory. And I was like, what about Theory? And that's how we came up with Theory's name.

• 45:35Bunnie XO?

  Yeah, it's a cute name.

• 45:36Speaker 03

  That was like, a little Theory?

• 45:40Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 45:40Speaker 03

  I, yeah, that's good.

• 45:42Bunnie XO?

  I love that name. So you saw her little foot and you're like,

• 45:45Speaker 03

  I seen her little foot.

• 45:46Bunnie XO?

  I'm not giving this baby up.

• 45:48Speaker 03

  I, I, yeah, I was like, nah, you're, you're gonna stay, you're gonna stay with me. And I told my aunt, she stopped talking to me.

• 45:55Bunnie XO?

  Oh.

• 45:56Speaker 03

  She, yeah, she didn't talk to me.

• 45:57Bunnie XO?

  Cause they not have kids?

• 45:59Speaker 03

  Don't they have a shit ton of kids?

• 46:00Bunnie XO?

  Oh, okay.

• 46:01Speaker 03

  They have a shit ton of kids. And um, he.

• 46:08Speaker 03

  The, the family, my uncle and my aunt, the ones that were supposed to take theory. My uncle was later arrested for molesting um my cousin and my cousin's best friend.

• 46:23Bunnie XO?

  Hmm.

• 46:24Speaker 03

  Yeah, so he's in jail till this day.

• 46:27Bunnie XO?

  I'm so thankful that I didn't go to him.

• 46:28Speaker 03

  I'm grateful, I'm eternally grateful. And some things just told me like, hey, like.

• 46:33Bunnie XO?

  Yeah, the universe just knew that she needed to be.

• 46:36Speaker 03

  But he was my favorite uncle, like uncle, he was my favorite uncle. How did I miss that?

• 46:41Bunnie XO?

  He might have been your favorite uncle because he was so sweet to you and like made you feel good because that's how men that groom are. You know, but I don't know the situation. I don't know you guys like relationships, so.

• 46:53Speaker 03

  Yeah, well, we, I mean, we were, we were, we were very close and unfortunately, my sister was one of his victims.

• 47:01Bunnie XO?

  No, damn, so he was just doing this to the whole family? He never did it to you though?

• 47:06Speaker 03

  Never. And, and my other cousins, no.

• 47:09Bunnie XO?

  He probably could see how strong you were, like.

• 47:11Speaker 03

  Yeah, I feel like he knew just because I'm, I was always very vocal.

• 47:15Bunnie XO?

  Right.

• 47:16Speaker 03

  Very vocal and my sister was very.

• 47:18Bunnie XO?

  Quiet.

• 47:19Speaker 03

  Quiet to herself.

• 47:20Bunnie XO?

  So he was a predator. He knew, he knew exactly who to pick on. So take me on this journey, you're a new mom, you're what seventeen, eighteen?

• 47:28Speaker 03

  I was eighteen when I did have, when I had my daughter.

• 47:31Bunnie XO?

  You're living with your sister still or?

• 47:33Speaker 03

  Yes, I was living with my sister.

• 47:35Bunnie XO?

  Okay.

• 47:36Speaker 03

  And I miss Philadelphia. I miss stripping. I miss the money. I miss everything. And I contacted my best friends at the time and I was like, hey, girl, like, I gotta get the fuck out of Maryland.

• 47:47Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 47:48Speaker 03

  And um, she was like, hey, you can stay with me and my sister. And just pay five hundred dollars a month. You're good. You're straight. You got a room. And that, that's how I got back into Philadelphia.

• 48:02Bunnie XO?

  Did you take theory with you? And where was baby daddy?

• 48:06Speaker 03

  Baby daddy was just in the wind.

• 48:08Bunnie XO?

  Just was what?

• 48:09Speaker 03

  In the wind.

• 48:09Bunnie XO?

  Yeah, just fucking.

• 48:11Speaker 03

  In, in.

• 48:11Bunnie XO?

  Guys have, guys have it so easy. They just come and go whenever the fuck they want. Like, it's just crazy.

• 48:17Speaker 03

  And he did, he did come to the, to the hospital when she was born.

• 48:21Bunnie XO?

  Oh, that's so nice of him.

• 48:22Speaker 03

  And he did um, like, visit Philadelphia for the first two to three months off and on. He tried to get a job in Maryland as well. I try to always insert positive things that he's done.

• 48:36Bunnie XO?

  Yeah. And I mean, what, people change, you know, people change and maybe you guys are in a better place now that you're older and like you guys have this, you know, theories grown and you guys have this relationship now, but you can't erase the past, you know?

• 48:50Speaker 03

  And I, I, I don't, but I'm one of those people that always try to highlight positive things that ha- that has happened and because it's so easy to focus on all the negative.

• 49:00Bunnie XO?

  Yeah, for sure.

• 49:00Speaker 03

  So I try to focus on some of the positive things that has happened and reoccurred in our lives to, to balance out everything else.

• 49:07Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 49:10Bunnie XO?

  But, so you're back in Philly, you're dancing. How long does this last, like the dancing? And did you always only dance or did you take it outside the club?

• 49:20Speaker 03

  Yeah, we had some sugar daddies. We had some good sugar daddies. I even took Tina on some sugar daddy trip.

• 49:28Bunnie XO?

  I want to hear about this. Look at Tina's blushing.

• 49:34Bunnie XO?

  She said, okay.

• 49:36Speaker 03

  You're done.

• 49:37Bunnie XO?

  You're done.

• 49:38Speaker 03

  Five.

• 49:40Bunnie XO?

  I love that. Okay, so you had sugar daddies.

• 49:43Speaker 03

  Yeah, so I had sugar daddies. I dated, I've done like, I did more than just dancing.

• 49:50Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 49:50Speaker 03

  And, um.

• 49:51Bunnie XO?

  I love that you're willing to be open about that.

• 49:53Speaker 03

  Oh, no.

• 49:54Bunnie XO?

  Because a lot of people try to hide that.

• 49:55Speaker 03

  No, absolutely not. And if you're saying that you never did, just you're.

• 49:59Bunnie XO?

  A liar.

• 50:00Speaker 03

  A liar.

• 50:00Bunnie XO?

  I say, how many times do I say that? When they're like, well, she only danced and I'm like, she's fucking lying.

• 50:04Speaker 03

  She's a fucking liar.

• 50:05Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 50:07Speaker 03

  And I've always been very honest with Tina, um, from the jump. I've been honest with my daughter as soon as she was able to comprehend what I was saying to her and so the main two people that I needed to be honest with and them to accept who I am.

• 50:25Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 50:25Speaker 03

  Is, is those are the people. I don't give a fuck about what anybody else has to say.

• 50:29Bunnie XO?

  Those are your people, though, that love you for you.

• 50:30Speaker 03

  Yes. Um, and I accept me for who I am. I know my truths, I know my values, I know exactly why I did what I did at the time. And if you don't understand it, good luck and good for you.

• 50:40Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 50:41Speaker 03

  Because you've never been in a position.

• 50:42Bunnie XO?

  Because you've never had to.

• 50:43Speaker 03

  You know, I was raised on survival. You were raised on privilege. Eat a dick.

• 50:47Bunnie XO?

  Yeah, I get that. Yeah, Tina's over here, amen. So you're dancing, you're doing all this. Take me on this journey in the next, you know, 10 years of your life. Like, what was it like? You're a mom now.

• 51:00Speaker 03

  I'm a mom.

• 51:01Bunnie XO?

  Got this dude in and out of your life.

• 51:02Speaker 03

  Actress. I was trying to be a model. I never strayed away from trying to be a model.

• 51:06Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 51:06Speaker 03

  And there was a lot of times where my sister was raising theory up until like she was two to three years old. And I was out late. I was up early trying to get these fashion show calls, acting gigs, and

• 51:26Speaker 03

  out late because I was working. So,

• 51:31Bunnie XO?

  Did drugs ever come?

• 51:32Speaker 03

  Yeah, I'm like, I'm trying to like fix in exactly where the drugs came in at, or

• 51:38Speaker 03

  the alcohol first.

• 51:39Bunnie XO?

  Probably like in the club. I think that's when I started.

• 51:42Speaker 03

  I know exactly. The day that I was working at Signatures, I had a whole toothache and I was just like, I have a toothache, blah, blah, blah. And this girl was like, hey, like I have a Vicodin and you could take it. And I just was like, eh.

• 51:57Bunnie XO?

  I call it getting percolated. That is the same exact thing that got me hooked on pills because I would never take them. I had my wisdom teeth pulled out. My girl was like, I've got a Percocet. Tasha was like, I've got a Percocet. Do you want it? And I'm like, sure. So I take it. And I just remember when it hit me in my pool, I was like, this is fucking heaven.

• 52:13Speaker 03

  Amazing. I was like, yeah.

• 52:15Bunnie XO?

  Yeah. Yeah. And that's, that's all it takes is one pill of being able to relax your nervous system and you're hooked.

• 52:23Speaker 03

  Yeah. So, so when I first did the Vicodin, I didn't do it again for maybe a year or two. And then I met my, my boyfriend and he was like, hey, like you're in a club. Here's some Adderall and some Percocet. And he was like, why don't you sell them? So I'm selling them in the club. All the girls are making all the fucking money. They're all happy, ha, ha, ha. That's when I was like, maybe I want to take something to see exactly what is going on because I, in the back of my head, I knew exactly what and how I felt the first time I took it a couple of years ago. And that's when my addiction really took full force.

• 53:08Speaker 03

  It it it really did. It just was, I was milk and cereal. Well, it's like Xanax and syrup. I would take perks, perks ten, perk thirties, break them in half. Then if I didn't have that, I would do coke. I would do anything to make sure that I was numb enough to get my shit, like make money.

• 53:36Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 53:37Speaker 03

  And or just feel normal. I, there was a, there was a time in my life where I just felt like if I wasn't high, I wasn't, you know, fun. I wasn't, I wasn't articulate enough. I wasn't.

• 53:51Bunnie XO?

  It brought you out of your shell.

• 53:53Speaker 03

  I was, yeah, and I never needed that because who I am, I'm just out there and I'm, I'm a burst of bubble. I, I don't know what made me think that I needed those drugs to be normal.

• 54:06Bunnie XO?

  I think it's influence. You know, you see all the girls around you, you guys are making a ton of money.

• 54:09Speaker 03

  It's almost like shit ton of money.

• 54:11Bunnie XO?

  Boredom too. Yeah. The clubs back in the days were completely different than what they are now.

• 54:15Speaker 03

  I go to a strip club today and I'm just like.

• 54:19Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 54:21Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 54:21Speaker 03

  That would never pass.

• 54:23Bunnie XO?

  Yeah. Yeah. I write about it in my book too. Like it was just, it was so much more glamorous.

• 54:29Speaker 03

  It was.

• 54:29Bunnie XO?

  Back then, it was so much more taboo. So I feel like people spent more money. And it was like more quality. I would, sometimes like I would switch it up because I got tired of working all through the night. And I would work at Crazy Horse Two in Vegas from one PM to nine PM. All the doctors and lawyers would come in because it was right there off the strip. I made fucking like fifteen hundred, two thousand dollars a day from one PM to nine PM.

• 54:51Speaker 03

  Make, bank.

• 54:53Bunnie XO?

  Just bank.

• 54:54Speaker 03

  Bank. And I tried to sell Tina all the time. Like when I, I would take her to strip clubs. And she's like, you dance with these? I'm like, no, we would have to weigh in. We would have to weigh in. We would have to get our makeup, hair, everything done. We would have headshots. We would do. It was, we would have meetings on elegant classes, on how to speak to people, how to mimic people's behaviors.

• 55:19Bunnie XO?

  Sit straight up.

• 55:20Speaker 03

  Yes. So whatever's going on today is just a different kind of. I, I know one thing, we would make a lot of money.

• 55:31Bunnie XO?

  Danielle, are we going back to dancing? What are we doing?

• 55:33Speaker 03

  No.

• 55:37Bunnie XO?

  I mean, just even teaching the girls the game this, this generation. Cause a lot of girls don't know it, you know? And they don't realize that you, there's, the less you do, the more money you're gonna get paid. And I know it sounds crazy coming from an ex-hooker, but even when I was hooking, I wasn't sleeping with all of these men.

• 55:52Speaker 03

  You didn't have to.

• 55:53Bunnie XO?

  Yeah, and yeah, it's just, I'm glad you get it, cause you were around in the same era. So you're on this journey with drugs.

• 55:59Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 55:59Bunnie XO?

  And when does it get to a, to a problem where you're like, this is an addiction and I need help?

• 56:05Speaker 03

  Where all my friends were telling me, Danielle, you have a fucking problem and...

• 56:10Bunnie XO?

  What was your cocktail? And like, what would you, just everything?

• 56:13Speaker 03

  So, no, so my preferred would always just be perks.

• 56:18Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 56:18Speaker 03

  I would love my perk tins and a shot of tequila at the time. I do not touch that stuff.

• 56:24Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 56:27Speaker 03

  But it depends on my mood. Like if I was at home, I would want my Xanax and I would want my syrup. So I can just nod off.

• 56:34Bunnie XO?

  Chill.

• 56:35Speaker 03

  Um, but if I was at work, I would want my shot and I would want my Percocet. If I was at the rave club, I would want my...

• 56:43Bunnie XO?

  Coppers.

• 56:43Speaker 03

  Yeah, like, it'd depend on the environment that I was in. Uh, my go-to was always gonna be a Percocet. That was my, that's my boo thing.

• 56:52Bunnie XO?

  How many were you taking a day?

• 56:54Speaker 03

  Oh gosh, uh, 10? 10, 15?

• 56:58Bunnie XO?

  I never pooped.

• 57:00Speaker 03

  Oh, girl.

• 57:00Bunnie XO?

  Ever.

• 57:01Speaker 03

  Pussin was not a thing.

• 57:02Bunnie XO?

  I never pooped.

• 57:03Speaker 03

  So, my colonic doctor, like, I was at the colonic all the time.

• 57:09Bunnie XO?

  Oh, I got a colonic one time and I was so backed up from all the pills that I was taking that I could, it didn't even work. I couldn't even shit. My girl went and got into colonic and whole Laura Tabs, the blue ones, were coming through the tube because they didn't digest in her. Like, yeah.

• 57:24Speaker 03

  And he, he, there was many times where he was just like, Danielle, you have to chew your food? Or like, how long is it like, like, could...

• 57:35Speaker 03

  Building up in your, your stool. He was like, you got a problem. I don't know. I just don't poop.

• 57:41Bunnie XO?

  Oh, you poor baby. So, did you end up getting help when your friends were like, Danielle, you need help?

• 57:47Speaker 03

  No, I didn't give a fuck what they had to say. They're all alcoholics in my opinion. So I was like, don't tell me what I need when you're in your own dream.

• 57:54Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 57:55Speaker 03

  Uh, uh, what helped me, what stopped me was my rock bottom and my rock bottom was me, um, leaving my kid in the car.

• 58:04Bunnie XO?

  Hmm.

• 58:05Speaker 03

  That was my rock bottom and that was the day I did not take a pill ever, ever, ever again.

• 58:12Bunnie XO?

  Take me on that day if, if we can.

• 58:14Speaker 03

  No, no, I, I can. Uh, I still remember it. I picked my daughter up from my sister's,

• 58:22Speaker 03

  which I should not have been driving and, um, so I just wanted to make sure it was not my daughter. Uh, and I was on the phone with my boyfriend at the time that got me into pills. And him and I are arguing. We argued all the time. I don't know exactly what we were arguing about. It probably was about perks, money, me, my timing, all kinds of things. And, um, I was on the phone with him, arguing with him all the way up into the apartment. And him and I got into a fistfight. I had bruises on me. He had bruises on him. And I just was like, fuck you. And I went to my room. Like, maybe thirty, forty minutes later, my car alarm went off.

• 59:06Speaker 03

  And I was like, what the fuck? And I see my daughter getting out the car.

• 59:13Bunnie XO?

  Was she in a like car seat?

• 59:15Speaker 03

  No, she, I mean, she got out. I mean, yeah, she was in her car seat, but she, I mean, it wasn't even a car seat. It was a booster seat.

• 59:21Bunnie XO?

  How old was she?

• 59:22Speaker 03

  Um, it's.

• 59:26Bunnie XO?

  Was it hot outside, cold?

• 59:27Speaker 03

  It was spring. It was around her birthday. It was April tenth.

• 59:32Speaker 03

  April 11th was the last, last day that I ever touched a Percocet. As my, as the last day.

• 59:39Bunnie XO?

  I love that that was your turning point, though. Like, your daughter saved you.

• 59:44Speaker 03

  Yeah, she is. She is my savior. And that's why I owe so much to her.

• 59:51Speaker 03

  Because even to this day, when I talk about my addiction, or there's been many a times when I talked about like, you know, if I just, just had to.

• 1:00:02Speaker 03

  She was like, do you really want to talk about it? Or like, you said it like more than like three times this week. Like, what, what the fuck is up? And I'm like, ah, no, I was just saying it in humor. She's like, okay, humor or serious? But there has been moments where like, I even talked to Tina and I'm like, I just would just prefer to just to take a Percocet. So I don't have to fucking deal with what's going on in my life right now. And she was like, do you want to talk about it? Do you want to call somebody? Do you like go all through the things that she thinks is the best thing, which is great. But I, I always.

• 1:00:37Bunnie XO?

  That's good though, that you have a safe space and Tina to be able to be like, hey, man, I'm feeling like this. Cause a lot of people don't have that luxury of having a partner who they can go like, that's how Jay and I are. If either one of us is feeling a certain way, we can go to each other and be real, you know? And that's not easy to do because, you know, especially being a recovering addict. You know, to be able to go to your partner and just say, hey, I really want to use right now. And her be understanding and loving is awesome.

• 1:01:05Speaker 03

  Yeah. And well, Tina, she's not that loving nurturer.

• 1:01:11Bunnie XO?

  All right. When does Tina come into the picture?

• 1:01:14Speaker 03

  Uh, she comes in like a year and a half or two years after my, like, I stopped dancing.

• 1:01:20Bunnie XO?

  Okay. When did you discover that you were gay?

• 1:01:23Speaker 03

  Oh, I always dabbled and dabbled.

• 1:01:25Bunnie XO?

  Okay.

• 1:01:26Speaker 03

  Tina's not, she won't allow me to say it on the record. Because everybody I dabbled and dabbled with was not a relationship. Tina is my first outward lesbian relationship.

• 1:01:37Bunnie XO?

  Okay, gotcha. Tina got it like that.

• 1:01:41Speaker 03

  I, I have been with many women before.

• 1:01:47Bunnie XO?

  Tina, Tina, come up here, come up here. Cause Tina's too funny dude.

• 1:01:53Speaker 03

  I know, and I'll keep on talking to her like hey.

• 1:01:58Bunnie XO?

  I love it. Tina, I'm so happy that you could join us on the couch. He been over there. Some hilarious commentary. And so, okay, so you guys met, how long have you guys been together? Eleven years.

• 1:02:11Speaker 04

  Almost eleven.

• 1:02:12Bunnie XO?

  Okay, so you, did you guys meet after you got sober?

• 1:02:16Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 1:02:17Bunnie XO?

  Okay, so you got sober while you were still working in the club?

• 1:02:19Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 1:02:19Bunnie XO?

  I love that.

• 1:02:20Speaker 03

  Well, no, well, yeah, I was fired from the club.

• 1:02:22Bunnie XO?

  Okay.

• 1:02:23Speaker 03

  Um, because I got into a lot of fights. I was a violent. Men are shit. Can we talk about that? Uh, men have a tendency to think that because they're in a strip club and you are working there that they, you, you are owned to them.

• 1:02:40Bunnie XO?

  Right.

• 1:02:40Speaker 03

  Um, I never allowed that shit to happen because my fist would meet your face.

• 1:02:45Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 1:02:46Speaker 03

  I finally got, um, fired for hitting a owner's friend. So I was like, it's time for me to get sober. Got sober, start working out.

• 1:03:00Speaker 04

  Anyway.

• 1:03:01Speaker 03

  Anyway, and ta-da.

• 1:03:03Bunnie XO?

  And that's how, so you guys met at, on, at working together. What was your first thoughts of Dani when you saw her?

• 1:03:13Speaker 04

  She was hot.

• 1:03:15Speaker 04

  I thought she was out of my league, for sure.

• 1:03:17Bunnie XO?

  And Tina, so you've always been lesbian or?

• 1:03:19Speaker 04

  I came out when I was fifteen.

• 1:03:20Bunnie XO?

  Okay, awesome.

• 1:03:21Speaker 04

  Well, my sister added me to my mom, but I came out like by myself at fifteen.

• 1:03:26Bunnie XO?

  Okay.

• 1:03:27Speaker 04

  So.

• 1:03:28Bunnie XO?

  And then Dani, how did you feel about Tina whenever you saw her?

• 1:03:31Speaker 03

  So I seen, so Tina and I initially met, like.

• 1:03:35Speaker 04

  But way before.

• 1:03:36Speaker 03

  Way before that, because she's my sister's best friend.

• 1:03:38Bunnie XO?

  Oh, okay.

• 1:03:39Speaker 03

  We've been working together for a very long time.

• 1:03:42Bunnie XO?

  Okay.

• 1:03:42Speaker 03

  Um, and that's how Theory knew of her before I knew of her. I feel like we skipped some steps.

• 1:03:47Bunnie XO?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah, let's circle back. So when did you, uh, originally first meet Tina?

• 1:03:51Speaker 03

  It was on my birthday.

• 1:03:53Bunnie XO?

  How old?

• 1:03:55Speaker 03

  A few years, I was still in my addiction. But my, me and my sister took me out to dinner at lunch. She was on her lunch break. She was with Gianna. She came across the street to see my sister and

• 1:04:07Speaker 04

  Yeah, we went there to have a drink. I didn't know your sister yet. She didn't work there.

• 1:04:10Speaker 03

  Oh, she didn't work there yet. Okay, I'm lying.

• 1:04:14Speaker 04

  We were having a drink on our lunch break.

• 1:04:16Bunnie XO?

  All right, Tina, you tell the story.

• 1:04:17Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 1:04:17Bunnie XO?

  What was the first time you guys met?

• 1:04:19Speaker 04

  I didn't pay her no mind because I had a crush on somebody else.

• 1:04:22Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 1:04:23Bunnie XO?

  Okay, so you

• 1:04:23Speaker 04

  I didn't know who she was at the time.

• 1:04:26Bunnie XO?

  Okay, and so where did you guys meet? Like, how old?

• 1:04:29Speaker 04

  Um, I was 24.

• 1:04:30Bunnie XO?

  And how old were you, Dani?

• 1:04:31Speaker 04

  When she started working there, she was 29.

• 1:04:34Speaker 03

  I was

• 1:04:34Speaker 04

  We're five years apart.

• 1:04:36Speaker 03

  Well, depends. No, no.

• 1:04:37Bunnie XO?

  Oh, here we go.

• 1:04:39Speaker 04

  So when I say that, she gets offended. Because I would say it's six years sometimes, and then it's five years. But now it's, but now it's six years.

• 1:04:48Bunnie XO?

  She's like, I was 28 and one quarter. All right?

• 1:04:52Speaker 04

  You were 29.

• 1:04:53Speaker 03

  Okay, I was 29. Shit.

• 1:04:57Speaker 04

  It was your 29th birthday, I think, is the first.

• 1:04:59Bunnie XO?

  Okay, and this was before working. This was before working at Payway.

• 1:05:03Speaker 03

  So we, we really don't know.

• 1:05:05Bunnie XO?

  Okay.

• 1:05:06Speaker 03

  Exactly. So we, because she was dating somebody, I was dating somebody, and we were being very messy individuals.

• 1:05:12Speaker 04

  Whoa, I wasn't being messy.

• 1:05:13Speaker 03

  You were a hell. Stop playing. You were

• 1:05:16Bunnie XO?

  Tina.

• 1:05:17Speaker 04

  No, I was not.

• 1:05:20Bunnie XO?

  Tina.

• 1:05:21Speaker 03

  Tina. Stop it.

• 1:05:22Speaker 04

  We were broken up when we got together.

• 1:05:24Speaker 03

  You guys were not broken up. We went through hell.

• 1:05:27Speaker 04

  I was sleeping on my mom's couch.

• 1:05:29Speaker 03

  But we went through hell.

• 1:05:31Speaker 04

  Okay.

• 1:05:31Speaker 03

  Did we, or did we not? If we're

• 1:05:34Speaker 04

  Lies. She's Catholic.

• 1:05:35Speaker 03

  Are we going through hell with an ex like that if they're not, they're still in the same home?

• 1:05:40Speaker 04

  I was sleeping on the couch, though.

• 1:05:41Speaker 03

  She's, it doesn't matter. She still treated you as you guys were together. She was stalking us.

• 1:05:47Bunnie XO?

  Were you still hooking up with her?

• 1:05:48Speaker 04

  Nah, fuck no.

• 1:05:48Speaker 03

  She wasn't hooking up with us, but they were still together.

• 1:05:51Bunnie XO?

  Okay, when did you guys decide that you guys were gonna hook up? Because you guys had met when you guys were younger. Trying to decipher your Maybe bringing Tina in wasn't a good idea.

• 1:06:01Speaker 04

  She decided for the both of us.

• 1:06:02Bunnie XO?

  Okay, so you guys met younger. You weren't interested because you were with somebody else. Dani, you were in your addiction.

• 1:06:10Speaker 03

  And I was with somebody else. I just said that I was gonna marry her. I, I've always said that I was gonna marry Tina.

• 1:06:16Bunnie XO?

  Oh.

• 1:06:17Speaker 04

  Before we even met.

• 1:06:18Speaker 03

  Before, like

• 1:06:19Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 1:06:20Speaker 03

  Before we

• 1:06:22Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 1:06:22Speaker 03

  Communicated.

• 1:06:23Bunnie XO?

  Cause you had seen her before.

• 1:06:25Speaker 03

  I already seen her.

• 1:06:25Bunnie XO?

  Okay.

• 1:06:26Speaker 04

  What was it about her that made you say that?

• 1:06:28Speaker 03

  She's mean.

• 1:06:30Speaker 04

  I mean.

• 1:06:31Speaker 03

  She's mean, yes.

• 1:06:34Speaker 04

  I'm just very blunt and it comes off kinda mean.

• 1:06:37Bunnie XO?

  I love that.

• 1:06:38Speaker 03

  She's mean. I love mean.

• 1:06:40Bunnie XO?

  People think I'm mean too, so don't worry about that.

• 1:06:42Speaker 03

  There's something that I, I respect. I respect honesty. I respect being authentically yourself. And Tina is, and I don't run across a lot of people, especially in the circles that I was running in. And I admired her and I still admire her to this day of her authenticity. Authenticity. Authentic behavior.

• 1:07:03Bunnie XO?

  Danny, turn your, turn your ringer off for me, baby.

• 1:07:05Speaker 03

  Why are you ringing me?

• 1:07:08Bunnie XO?

  Okay, so when did you guys think like, alright, I'm ready to fucking get it on?

• 1:07:16Speaker 04

  I didn't think that way. I'm a saint.

• 1:07:18Speaker 03

  No, she's not.

• 1:07:19Speaker 04

  She took advantage of me.

• 1:07:20Speaker 03

  So.

• 1:07:21Bunnie XO?

  I believe it. I believe that.

• 1:07:22Speaker 04

  I was vulnerable.

• 1:07:25Speaker 03

  Tina was just.

• 1:07:28Bunnie XO?

  Had you just gotten out of a relationship? Were you still in that abusive relationship?

• 1:07:32Speaker 03

  She was still in a relationship.

• 1:07:33Speaker 04

  So who's the messy one? No, I was not.

• 1:07:35Speaker 03

  Yeah, she was. Anyway. She would blush whenever I would talk to her. And I was like, oh, she liked me. Don't, don't be acting like that. So I would send her little notes every single day. Like, smile, you're beautiful, da-da-da. And, um.

• 1:07:53Bunnie XO?

  This is why you guys are working at Payway.

• 1:07:55Speaker 03

  This is why we're working at Payway.

• 1:07:56Speaker 04

  She was a waitress.

• 1:07:57Speaker 03

  Okay. Like a waitress. And, um, every day I would just make her smile, but she was so mean. She was just like cussing everybody off.

• 1:08:06Bunnie XO?

  She gave you a challenge?

• 1:08:07Speaker 03

  Yeah, she did. Not me. She was always with me.

• 1:08:09Bunnie XO?

  In general. Like she didn't swoon over you.

• 1:08:12Speaker 03

  Yeah, she was like, you know Fred and Kitty off of The 70's Show? I feel like that's, that's us. Like she's typically rude to everybody, but she's always soft and gentle with me.

• 1:08:21Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 1:08:23Speaker 03

  But um, I don't know what happened. There was one day I asked her to go to the bathroom and then I just was like,

• 1:08:31Speaker 04

  That's not, that's not what happened.

• 1:08:34Bunnie XO?

  I love how they both have different recounts of everything. Alright, let's hear your, Tina, let's hear your version.

• 1:08:41Speaker 04

  Offer, I was, I used to take three buses and a L to work. So you offered me a ride home one time. I was living in Frankfurt.

• 1:08:47Speaker 03

  I offered her a ride.

• 1:08:49Speaker 04

  And she made the first move.

• 1:08:50Speaker 03

  No, I didn't. You kissed me on my, this part.

• 1:08:53Speaker 04

  You are such a liar. Anyways.

• 1:08:56Bunnie XO?

  Well, either way, you were sticking your tongue down her throat in the bathroom.

• 1:08:59Speaker 03

  We have a picture. We have a picture.

• 1:09:02Speaker 04

  It's by the bathroom, not in the bathroom.

• 1:09:06Speaker 04

  And that's how we got together and we used to sneak around.

• 1:09:10Speaker 03

  We would go on our lunch break.

• 1:09:11Speaker 04

  Because she still lived in the house with him and I still, my ex still lived in the house. I was with my mom at the time.

• 1:09:19Speaker 03

  Messy.

• 1:09:20Speaker 04

  And we used to.

• 1:09:22Speaker 03

  We used to who?

• 1:09:23Speaker 04

  In the car.

• 1:09:24Speaker 03

  In the car.

• 1:09:24Speaker 04

  In the parking lot of our job. The end.

• 1:09:28Bunnie XO?

  That's kinda hot.

• 1:09:30Speaker 04

  It was hot.

• 1:09:30Bunnie XO?

  I mean, that's hot. I'm like, I'm letting you guys talk because I want to hear more.

• 1:09:34Speaker 04

  And then I moved in with my cousin so I didn't have to deal with, because everybody, when we broke up, everybody took her side. Like my mom and my sister and stuff.

• 1:09:42Bunnie XO?

  How long were you guys together?

• 1:09:43Speaker 04

  Uh, six and a half years.

• 1:09:44Bunnie XO?

  Oh, okay. What about you, Danny? When did you leave and move out of his house?

• 1:09:48Speaker 03

  Uh, my house? Um.

• 1:09:49Speaker 04

  He moved out.

• 1:09:51Speaker 03

  He moved out.

• 1:09:56Bunnie XO?

  When did you guys know that it was going to be serious?

• 1:09:58Speaker 03

  Me and him had a conversation. I told him that I was, him and I just wasn't meshing well. We, we did have a really good relationship when it came to what we want in the end. I think that's, I think that was literally it. But I think he had a lot of traumas. I also had a lot of traumas and we wasn't working together to fix either of them together. And he lacked a lot of emotional depth that I was looking for. I had that conversation with him. He did not fight me. He did not fight me at all with me moving forward and him moving out. It was, it was.

• 1:10:36Bunnie XO?

  He just knew that it was over.

• 1:10:38Speaker 03

  He just knew. I mean, we both really knew. There was no. Love lost or anything. I did reach out to him a few years like after and I apologized for how

• 1:10:51Bunnie XO?

  It went down.

• 1:10:52Speaker 03

  I did talk to Tina about it before I sent the email like, hey, I do want, because I don't want karma to hit me.

• 1:10:59Bunnie XO?

  I get it.

• 1:10:59Speaker 03

  I want to reach out to him and I want to apologize to him for, you know, how it went down because his feelings could have been hurt. He wouldn't have communicated with that to me because he didn't have that emotional depth to communicate that or convey his emotions to me. So I just wanted to clear that air so we can move forward the way that we need it to.

• 1:11:22Bunnie XO?

  So did you move in with her?

• 1:11:24Speaker 03

  She moved in immediately. They actually walked past each other.

• 1:11:29Bunnie XO?

  Oh, my God.

• 1:11:31Speaker 04

  He was moving out and I was at her house. So me and Theory left because she saw him coming.

• 1:11:36Bunnie XO?

  Oh, did Theory always love you?

• 1:11:38Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 1:11:38Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 1:11:39Speaker 04

  He used to call me her best friend.

• 1:11:40Bunnie XO?

  Oh, you guys seem to have a really close relationship.

• 1:11:43Speaker 04

  Friend she had back then because she used to get bullied a lot.

• 1:11:46Bunnie XO?

  Oh, really? She's such a beautiful kid.

• 1:11:49Speaker 04

  She was the best.

• 1:11:50Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 1:11:50Speaker 04

  He is the best.

• 1:11:51Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 1:11:51Speaker 03

  Yeah, she is. She is a good kid.

• 1:11:54Bunnie XO?

  So take, take me on this journey with you guys and Theory, you know, becoming a same-sex relationship. Was it hard? Were people accepting?

• 1:12:05Speaker 04

  It was really new to her, even though she dabbled and dabbled.

• 1:12:08Bunnie XO?

  Right.

• 1:12:09Speaker 04

  In women, it wasn't like out.

• 1:12:10Bunnie XO?

  Right.

• 1:12:11Speaker 04

  Like that. So for like a couple of weeks, she couldn't stay away. That's basically what happened.

• 1:12:17Bunnie XO?

  Did you struggle with the full-time lesbian title?

• 1:12:22Speaker 03

  It wasn't, it wasn't, it wasn't the lesbian title. It was her. It was her.

• 1:12:31Bunnie XO?

  Whoa. Blame, blame, blame, blame.

• 1:12:35Speaker 03

  It wasn't, it wasn't, it wasn't being out in a relationship with her. It wasn't about the lesbian title. I think it was how strong she wanted to be committed so fast after I was already in this relationship with somebody.

• 1:12:52Bunnie XO?

  It scared you. When did you guys get married?

• 1:12:57Speaker 04

  Two years ago.

• 1:12:58Speaker 03

  Yeah, two years ago, yeah.

• 1:12:59Speaker 04

  Yeah, we eloped, we went to Vegas and got married.

• 1:13:02Speaker 03

  Yeah, so when I moved to LA, that's when I was just like, okay, this is my girl. I mean, I already knew that you were my girl.

• 1:13:08Speaker 04

  We were already together like nine years already when.

• 1:13:11Bunnie XO?

  When you guys got married?

• 1:13:12Speaker 04

  Yeah, when she told me, I thought it was a joke. She's like, do you want to just go to Vegas and get married? And I was like, haha, like, we've been together so long, we've been engaged for seven years. I thought she was like lying. And then we really drove to Vegas and got married that same day.

• 1:13:23Bunnie XO?

  What do you think the secret to you guys' marriage is? Cause I mean, 11 years is nothing to scoff at, especially nowadays.

• 1:13:30Speaker 03

  Um, I think it's acceptance. I don't know. I, no, I don't, no, no, I'm not even gonna lie. Um, I don't.

• 1:13:38Bunnie XO?

  Are you even gonna lie, Chris?

• 1:13:41Speaker 03

  Acceptance, accepting of who she is. Um.

• 1:13:47Speaker 03

  For, for us, I think it's just like.

• 1:13:53Speaker 03

  I don't know, I don't know. I don't know.

• 1:13:55Bunnie XO?

  You guys were like best friends.

• 1:13:57Speaker 04

  Sometimes when you know, you know. Sometimes you can't explain, you just can't explain it.

• 1:14:02Speaker 03

  So for me, for, this is me, I can only speak for myself. When it comes to Tina, she allows me to be who I want to be. And it, as I grow, she adapts and she sees who I'm becoming. And she's just like, she accepts that, that part of me. Um, she doesn't throw, um, my past at me, like a lot of people do. Uh, she loves me. This is what makes it work for me. She loves me unconditionally. Um, she wants best for me. And, um, I don't know, she just.

• 1:14:42Speaker 04

  What about you, Tina?

• 1:14:43Speaker 03

  Yeah, that's, that's a big part. You, you do love theory, but she, she goes on these.

• 1:14:53Speaker 03

  These mental trips with me, it doesn't matter how ugly that they get, they don't, it doesn't, it don't discourage her

• 1:15:00Bunnie XO?

  Right.

• 1:15:00Speaker 03

  away from wanting to be with me. It doesn't matter how ugly I get and I

• 1:15:04Bunnie XO?

  She sees your dark side.

• 1:15:05Speaker 03

  Yeah, and I, I call it my ugly for reasons that I, I don't show a lot of people because I feel like a lot of people won't appreciate how my brain operates and, I don't know, but she, she does. And so does Terry.

• 1:15:22Bunnie XO?

  And how do you feel Tina?

• 1:15:25Speaker 03

  And therapy helps too.

• 1:15:27Speaker 04

  I don't know.

• 1:15:28Speaker 03

  Tina, that's no.

• 1:15:30Bunnie XO?

  That was beautiful what she said about you. What do you think makes you guys work and have been able to last for 11 years?

• 1:15:38Speaker 04

  I don't know.

• 1:15:41Bunnie XO?

  A woman of few words.

• 1:15:42Speaker 03

  She's like, she does all the fighting, she does all the working. No.

• 1:15:48Speaker 04

  I don't, I don't really know.

• 1:15:51Speaker 04

  I don't know. I can't think of anything. Why you put me on the spot like that?

• 1:15:54Speaker 03

  I invited.

• 1:15:55Speaker 04

  You're a talker, I'm not. So you can express your feelings more than I can.

• 1:15:59Bunnie XO?

  It's okay.

• 1:16:00Speaker 03

  It's okay. You're fine. I understand that you're limited to.

• 1:16:04Bunnie XO?

  She's nervous.

• 1:16:05Speaker 04

  I am nervous.

• 1:16:06Bunnie XO?

  So let's get into when you guys got on TikTok. Like how, when did you guys get on TikTok? 2020?

• 1:16:13Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 1:16:13Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 1:16:14Bunnie XO?

  And take me on that journey.

• 1:16:15Speaker 04

  She's always been on social media though.

• 1:16:17Speaker 03

  Yeah, she's been on social media since she was a kid.

• 1:16:19Speaker 04

  Yeah, it's like she had music leave on and all that type of stuff.

• 1:16:21Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 1:16:22Speaker 04

  And then she would never be on it. We would always be like sharing videos and like laughing with each other. Like, what are you laughing at? We're like TikTok, it's so funny. You should download it. She's like, no, I'm not downloading that stupid shit. And then one day she just downloaded it and she did this video and it went viral and she was hyped and she was like, I like this. I'm gonna do it more. And then that's how she.

• 1:16:41Speaker 03

  Yeah, because like they were leaving me out like at dinner because we were a very traditional kind of like family where we sit at the table and we have conversations. We talked about our days. We, we do these things that a lot of people don't assume that lesbian couples do with their children.

• 1:16:59Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 1:17:00Speaker 03

  And they were leaving me out of the conversation. They were leaving me out and who they were becoming. And I was just like, The fuck are you guys laughing at? It's not funny. Get you off your phones.

• 1:17:11Speaker 04

  It was very TikTok used to be very funny.

• 1:17:13Bunnie XO?

  Yeah, well TikTok used to be a great place.

• 1:17:15Speaker 03

  I love TikTok. I loved it.

• 1:17:18Bunnie XO?

  And now I still do love TikTok, but I just feel like now everybody just, everybody wants to expose everybody. Nobody wants to tell the whole fucking story for anything they say.

• 1:17:27Speaker 04

  Serious. It used to be like funny, dancing.

• 1:17:30Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 1:17:31Speaker 04

  Yeah. Yeah. Facebook people are ignorant.

• 1:17:33Speaker 03

  I'm scared of Facebook.

• 1:17:34Speaker 04

  I almost go to jail. Every time I'm in the comments.

• 1:17:37Bunnie XO?

  I stopped reading Facebook comments. I just, I refuse.

• 1:17:40Speaker 04

  I love a good argument.

• 1:17:42Bunnie XO?

  Every now and then, if I'm feeling froggy, I will go in and choose violence, but.

• 1:17:47Speaker 03

  I'm a great debater. I, I love to debate with people.

• 1:17:49Speaker 04

  But you say things in a certain way.

• 1:17:52Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 1:17:52Speaker 04

  That be pissing me off. Cause I just wanna.

• 1:17:55Speaker 03

  I'm political.

• 1:17:56Speaker 04

  We can't say that. So why the fuck not? I'm not on social media. I can say what I want.

• 1:17:59Bunnie XO?

  That's why I love her.

• 1:18:00Speaker 04

  I just talk about people's mamas and everything. I do.

• 1:18:03Bunnie XO?

  So you got on TikTok.

• 1:18:05Speaker 03

  I did.

• 1:18:05Bunnie XO?

  And that's when you guys started going viral and building your brand?

• 1:18:09Speaker 03

  Mm-hmm. Yep.

• 1:18:11Bunnie XO?

  Take me on that journey.

• 1:18:12Speaker 03

  Uh, that was a hard journey.

• 1:18:16Speaker 03

  I just, I just felt like there was stories that weren't being told. Especially coming from a black woman, a black family, a lesbian family. And I felt like there was a lot of topics that needed to be talked about and brought to light. And that's what we did.

• 1:18:35Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 1:18:35Speaker 03

  And it was real. We recreated so many conversations. There was a lot of times that we were all sitting there and I was like, remember that time? Da, da, da. And I was like, we should recreate that conversation. Let's try to remember exactly what we said and how I reacted. And that's.

• 1:18:50Speaker 04

  How Hey Mom started.

• 1:18:51Speaker 03

  Hey, that's how Hey Mom started. And it's literally how my child walks into a room. She was like, Hey Mom. And.

• 1:18:59Speaker 04

  It just took off. And that's what she wanted to do.

• 1:19:04Speaker 03

  And that's, it started.

• 1:19:07Speaker 03

  With a lot of controversial conversations and now I think that we swifted into more educational and more marketable.

• 1:19:15Bunnie XO?

  I love you guys' content and especially like when you talk about the stepparent stuff because that resonates with me also. But I love like the little skits you guys do. I think it's necessary.

• 1:19:25Speaker 03

  Thank you. I thank you.

• 1:19:26Speaker 04

  It helps a lot of people. I don't think she realizes sometimes how many people it does actually help.

• 1:19:30Bunnie XO?

  No, it's it's comfort. It's comfort.

• 1:19:33Speaker 03

  How I sleep.

• 1:19:33Bunnie XO?

  Content, you know, and it's like it's feel good content like it's no drama. It's never anything controversial. It's just really like raw and real family situations that a lot of families have to deal with. And like, you know, even when you were being open about your facelift and about, you know, taking the pills for whenever you were healing from your facelift. Like, people need to know that that's actually a struggle.

• 1:19:57Speaker 04

  And it's hard because she was in so much pain and she would not take anything.

• 1:20:00Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 1:20:00Speaker 03

  But I think once your determination kicks in, I feel like you're gonna be like, fuck it.

• 1:20:05Bunnie XO?

  Yeah, yeah, just fucking tear my fucking ovaries apart. Don't care.

• 1:20:09Speaker 03

  Life hurts harder than those pills.

• 1:20:12Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 1:20:12Speaker 03

  Yeah. Like, anything that came with my drug addiction hurt harder than what relapse will feel like. Like, I, I think about those moments when, like, when I talk about, I'd just rather have a fucking perk. It's those hard, bottomless moments that makes me like, nah, fuck that. Like, I can, I can do this facelift. I can go through a BBL with, without taking any fucking pills.

• 1:20:41Bunnie XO?

  Yep.

• 1:20:41Speaker 03

  Just because I know that hurts, that

• 1:20:46Speaker 03

  that feeling of having a pill in my system. I know that's gonna hurt worse than what I'm going through physically at that moment.

• 1:20:53Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 1:20:54Speaker 04

  You have more to lose now too. So it's like you have to think about that.

• 1:20:57Speaker 03

  Yeah. I mean, I've always had a lot to lose, but.

• 1:21:02Speaker 03

  Mentally, yeah.

• 1:21:03Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 1:21:03Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 1:21:04Bunnie XO?

  Did you guys ever picture you guys would be where you are now?

• 1:21:07Speaker 03

  Me?

• 1:21:07Bunnie XO?

  Eleven years ago, yeah.

• 1:21:08Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 1:21:09Bunnie XO?

  Danielle's like, I manifested this shit.

• 1:21:11Speaker 03

  I, I am, I am, I want to be further where I, I, I want to be great. I, I want to be places where I know I deserve to be. Um, and I have a vision for my family and empire and I, I expect them to want to the same things as me, but everybody's timeline looks different and, um, I'm here waiting for everybody.

• 1:21:34Bunnie XO?

  Let's talk about.

• 1:21:35Speaker 04

  I make it hard.

• 1:21:35Bunnie XO?

  Go ahead.

• 1:21:36Speaker 04

  I make it hard.

• 1:21:37Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 1:21:39Speaker 04

  I'm very stubborn. And she's like, you don't need to work, I work two jobs. I'm like always working. She's like, you don't need to do that.

• 1:21:46Speaker 03

  You don't have to work two jobs. I want her to be my manager. I want, like, I don't want her to be my manager, but I want her to do something that I know she's passionate about and I know she's.

• 1:21:55Bunnie XO?

  On her own schedule.

• 1:21:56Speaker 03

  On her own schedule. So I hate, I loathe that she works two jobs and she refuses to break that generational cycle.

• 1:22:04Bunnie XO?

  But that's probably a hurt, one of her traumas. Like, did you come from a family that argued over money or?

• 1:22:10Speaker 04

  No, but my mom was work all the time and I, my dad wasn't around, so.

• 1:22:13Speaker 03

  Yep.

• 1:22:13Speaker 04

  I didn't, we were home a lot by ourselves.

• 1:22:16Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 1:22:17Speaker 04

  And my mom worked two jobs. So I worked two jobs.

• 1:22:19Speaker 03

  Till this.

• 1:22:20Speaker 04

  Oh, to this day, she works a lot.

• 1:22:22Bunnie XO?

  No.

• 1:22:23Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 1:22:23Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 1:22:24Speaker 04

  And plus I feel like I don't want my financial burdens to be on her if I was to quit. Cause like they're my, like my car, my car, like all that. I feel like she would have to, that's a lot for one person.

• 1:22:37Speaker 03

  But do I ever complain?

• 1:22:38Speaker 04

  No, but that's not the point.

• 1:22:40Speaker 03

  I, I would never complain.

• 1:22:42Speaker 04

  Myself.

• 1:22:42Speaker 03

  So I would prefer, I would, and I tell you this all the time, I prefer me having to deal with every financial situation than you having to go into that place and be so miserable because I'm getting half of what you are capable of doing. Because you're so bright, you're so intellectual, you're so smart, you retain. And I tell you-

• 1:23:04Bunnie XO?

  Do you guys wanna make out right now?

• 1:23:06Speaker 03

  No, she like she's Tina is probably the smartest person.

• 1:23:09Speaker 04

  You tell me this all the time.

• 1:23:11Speaker 03

  She's so smart. She's so smart. She does not need to be working two jobs.

• 1:23:15Bunnie XO?

  And I love, I can see both sides of the of the coin because I'm a sugar mama like you. Like I, when I first got with J, I was like, let me take care of you, you know, like, let me do this. But when he, when the roles reversed and he started making a lot more money than me, he's like, don't work. I'm like, fuck you. I'm like, I'm gonna work because I, I'm never gonna put my financial burden on him. I wanna always, so I get it. I see both sides of the coin.

• 1:23:39Speaker 03

  And I don't want her to put her financial, it's not even a burden, but her financial, her finances on to me. Because I, I know she's an independent individual. I know that where she comes from. I know what she's capable of doing. So I just want her to focus on something more beneficial to her where she has a lot more time-

• 1:23:57Bunnie XO?

  Maybe-

• 1:23:58Speaker 03

  To do something that she wants.

• 1:23:59Bunnie XO?

  And sort of compromise, maybe work one job and then try to help Danielle with what it is that she wants you to help with. Do a trial run and then if it doesn't work out, you can always go back to having that second job.

• 1:24:12Speaker 04

  I guess.

• 1:24:12Bunnie XO?

  You never know, you might fucking thrive and make double the money that you're making at both jobs.

• 1:24:17Speaker 04

  She will thrive.

• 1:24:18Bunnie XO?

  See? I love that. I love it. We have a game plan for 2025.

• 1:24:22Speaker 03

  She's incredible. You're, you're-

• 1:24:24Speaker 04

  Well, I did put on my vision board that I wanna quit the second job.

• 1:24:27Bunnie XO?

  There you go. And we just came up with a game plan. I am you guys' therapist now, alright?

• 1:24:35Speaker 03

  I mean, unless you want me to go back and having sugar daddies and you could be sitting at the dinner table across the hall.

• 1:24:40Speaker 04

  I don't like that idea. That was not a good fun time.

• 1:24:43Speaker 03

  That was great.

• 1:24:44Bunnie XO?

  Oh, you used to go on dates with her while she had sugar daddies?

• 1:24:47Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 1:24:47Bunnie XO?

  I love that.

• 1:24:48Speaker 03

  So I didn't leave my sugar daddies, oh, back to the sugar daddies. I didn't leave my sugar daddies until like maybe two to three years after we were dating.

• 1:24:57Bunnie XO?

  Yeah. I was, I get it. I didn't stop, I didn't get out of the sex industry until 2020.

• 1:25:02Speaker 03

  Yeah, okay.

• 1:25:03Speaker 04

  People went back to dancing for like a little bit when we first got together.

• 1:25:06Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 1:25:06Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 1:25:07Speaker 04

  Yeah. So, I mean-

• 1:25:08Bunnie XO?

  I mean, shit.

• 1:25:09Speaker 04

  I didn't care.

• 1:25:10Speaker 03

  I think we're natural born survivors and we're always going to do what we have to do.

• 1:25:15Bunnie XO?

  Hustlers. We're hustlers. We're gonna hustle, baby.

• 1:25:17Speaker 04

  I like to make money.

• 1:25:19Bunnie XO?

  Let's talk about this book that you wrote.

• 1:25:21Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 1:25:21Bunnie XO?

  Yeah. What's the name of it? What's it about and where can people find it?

• 1:25:25Speaker 03

  Okay, Not a Doctor, Just a Mom is on Amazon. It was written by me. It's about-

• 1:25:32Speaker 03

  I want to say gentle parenting, but it's not about gentle parenting. It's just about parenting with empathy, respect and boundaries. I feel like a lot of people look at gentle parenting as if it's your doormat. And it's not that. It's you have to understand that your child is not a reflection of you. It's a reflection of who they're supposed to be. You're just there to guide them and love them and nourish them into the individual that they're supposed to be and not the person that you want them to be.

• 1:26:02Speaker 03

  So it just deals with a lot of conflict issues and how you can resolve them without forcing your opinions. You can, there's a lot of insight on loving and adapting to your child's uniqueness without forcing your opinions and all that, that kind of things on them. I think it's a very important and informative book on just parenting in general. I was told many a times by many managers that this book was not, it couldn't come to life. And it did. I was, I love when people tell me I can't do something.

• 1:26:40Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 1:26:41Speaker 03

  I love it. Tell me I can't do it? Okay.

• 1:26:43Bunnie XO?

  Yeah, bet. Watch.

• 1:26:44Speaker 03

  I've been told I was not marketable over and over and over. I've been told over and over, I'm not marketable.

• 1:26:51Bunnie XO?

  Your guys' entire brand is marketable.

• 1:26:53Speaker 04

  That's what I, that's what I was telling them.

• 1:26:54Bunnie XO?

  A biracial lesbian couple raising, you know, with a baby, not a baby, but a child is, and she's not a child, but you know what I'm saying? Like the whole family dynamic.

• 1:27:03Speaker 03

  A little human.

• 1:27:04Bunnie XO?

  Yeah, you know, like you guys are super marketable.

• 1:27:07Speaker 03

  Yeah, so I was told I wasn't able to do it and so I did it.

• 1:27:14Bunnie XO?

  I love it. I'm proud of you.

• 1:27:15Speaker 03

  And I love it. And it's number one.

• 1:27:19Speaker 04

  On Amazon.

• 1:27:19Speaker 03

  Number one new release, number one on child discipline, number one on teens' discipline.

• 1:27:28Bunnie XO?

  I need that. I'm gonna buy your fucking book. Look, I'm going through with a 16 year old right now.

• 1:27:34Speaker 03

  And it doesn't, it doesn't have to necessarily be about even with children. It could be with any kind of relationship. Like this is just basic. Knowledge.

• 1:27:44Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 1:27:44Speaker 03

  When it comes to relationships and accepting people for whom they are and, you know, your position in their life.

• 1:27:52Bunnie XO?

  Yep.

• 1:27:53Speaker 03

  Your position in people's lives is a privilege, not it's you're not obligated to their their life existence. And we have, as a parent, we have eighteen years, eighteen years to make a great impression on them to want you to be in their lives.

• 1:28:09Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 1:28:10Speaker 03

  Like me.

• 1:28:11Bunnie XO?

  Amen.

• 1:28:11Speaker 03

  My mom, she blew that one.

• 1:28:13Bunnie XO?

  Hmm.

• 1:28:13Speaker 03

  I mean, love you today.

• 1:28:14Bunnie XO?

  I'm glad that you and your mom have a good relationship now, though.

• 1:28:18Speaker 03

  We're getting there. Small dosage, small dosages, um, small increments. I still put up a lot of boundaries with my mom.

• 1:28:26Bunnie XO?

  Same. Uh, before my mom passed away and I, their forgive, forgiveness is for you, not them.

• 1:28:31Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 1:28:32Bunnie XO?

  So it's, that's just all you have to always keep telling yourself.

• 1:28:35Speaker 03

  Yeah. Um, it was a journey. It is still a journey, but I'm, I'm happy where I am with her.

• 1:28:43Speaker 04

  But he lives far.

• 1:28:45Speaker 03

  Yeah. You needed to know.

• 1:28:47Speaker 04

  I feel like that's why she it's she's not so like close. So it's like

• 1:28:52Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 1:28:52Speaker 04

  easier to not be

• 1:28:53Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 1:28:54Speaker 04

  under each other.

• 1:28:55Speaker 03

  Uh, yeah. That's why my brother moved here.

• 1:28:58Bunnie XO?

  So twenty twenty five, what is this year gonna bring for you guys as a brand, as a couple, as parents?

• 1:29:06Speaker 03

  As a brand, as a brand.

• 1:29:11Bunnie XO?

  As a brand together?

• 1:29:11Speaker 04

  Look at me.

• 1:29:13Bunnie XO?

  Hmm. Cause you're her person.

• 1:29:15Speaker 04

  She's the creative one, though. She's got a lot of ideas up there.

• 1:29:18Bunnie XO?

  Yeah, but you make it her feel safe enough to do it.

• 1:29:21Speaker 03

  Thank you.

• 1:29:23Speaker 04

  Honey, whose side are you on?

• 1:29:24Bunnie XO?

  Both, both of you guys' sides. I'm on both of you guys' sides. I, you need to realize how, uh, you know,

• 1:29:31Speaker 03

  Important your role.

• 1:29:31Bunnie XO?

  important your role is in this relationship, too. She can't even make a fricking sentence without staring you in your eyeballs.

• 1:29:38Speaker 03

  I know. She is my, my person. I was like,

• 1:29:41Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 1:29:42Speaker 03

  Get her.

• 1:29:43Bunnie XO?

  And Tina's over there, what are you pointing at me for?

• 1:29:46Speaker 03

  Tina is literally my um my rhythm to my heart. She really makes things work for me. She gives me that space to be creative. She's given me the courage to actually get up every day, even when I'm like, I'm not in this. And she's like, bitch, who the fuck do you think you're talking to?

• 1:30:07Speaker 04

  I don't say bitch, by the way.

• 1:30:09Speaker 03

  She, but she, she does, she gets, she, she is, she's, she's literally the person that I, I turn to and want to turn to. When I am in hardship and I need that motivation and I want her to understand her importance in that role. So 2025 looks.

• 1:30:27Speaker 04

  Like getting Tina harder.

• 1:30:28Bunnie XO?

  Getting Tina to manage you.

• 1:30:30Speaker 03

  I want, yeah, I want her to understand how important she is because I don't think that she listens to me. And sometimes I feel like I'm fighting the fight by myself because she does not take my words and my actions seriously. Because she has a lot of work to do.

• 1:30:49Speaker 04

  Yep.

• 1:30:50Speaker 03

  And that's, and that's, and I'm.

• 1:30:51Speaker 04

  I said I'm gonna work on it.

• 1:30:53Speaker 03

  Yeah, and I believe you, I believe you.

• 1:30:56Bunnie XO?

  What, yeah. What do you want for 2025, Tina? What's a goal that you have for you guys for 2025?

• 1:31:05Speaker 03

  Do not say, I don't know.

• 1:31:06Bunnie XO?

  No, you're not allowed to say, I don't know.

• 1:31:10Speaker 04

  Um.

• 1:31:15Speaker 04

  I wanna buy a house and I wanna quit one job at least.

• 1:31:19Bunnie XO?

  There you go.

• 1:31:20Speaker 03

  That's good.

• 1:31:21Bunnie XO?

  That's good.

• 1:31:22Speaker 03

  That's a step.

• 1:31:23Bunnie XO?

  That's really good.

• 1:31:24Speaker 04

  That's two.

• 1:31:25Bunnie XO?

  She shot it off two goals.

• 1:31:26Speaker 04

  Two goals, yeah.

• 1:31:27Bunnie XO?

  I love that.

• 1:31:28Speaker 03

  And I love that.

• 1:31:29Speaker 04

  And I'll pay off my car.

• 1:31:31Speaker 03

  I do love that and I, I do believe that. All three of them are realistic.

• 1:31:36Speaker 04

  Endurable.

• 1:31:38Speaker 03

  Endurable, every single one of them. And I love that. Thank you for.

• 1:31:43Bunnie XO?

  I'm happy you guys came on the podcast today. I'm so happy we got to finally do this and sit together.

• 1:31:48Speaker 03

  And I'm so sorry that I'm all, I am such a.

• 1:31:51Bunnie XO?

  No, you're fine. You're totally fine. Trust me. It all, it seems like it doesn't come together, but when you listen back, you're like, oh, I was a lot more on track than I thought I was.

• 1:31:59Speaker 03

  Okay.

• 1:32:00Bunnie XO?

  Um, why don't you shout out where people can find you guys? Shout out your socials, shout out website, shout out your book, whatever you want to do right now so that people know where to find you.

• 1:32:08Speaker 03

  Um, and I love your hand movement. Where can we find that?

• 1:32:14Speaker 03

  So you can find me on TikTok, Instagram.

• 1:32:18Speaker 04

  YouTube.

• 1:32:19Speaker 03

  YouTube.

• 1:32:19Speaker 04

  Facebook.

• 1:32:20Speaker 03

  In Facebook. Well, they all have different ones. So you can find me on Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Snapchat, all of the.

• 1:32:28Speaker 04

  Socials.

• 1:32:29Speaker 03

  Socials at Sylvester underscore Danielle underscore. And you can find my book, Not a Doctor, Just a Mom on Amazon.

• 1:32:41Speaker 03

  Not the eye contact with the camera.

• 1:32:43Speaker 04

  I was wondering where she was like, you look at the camera the whole time.

• 1:32:45Speaker 03

  I have to teaser, I have to teaser about that.

• 1:32:48Speaker 04

  She wants them to know.

• 1:32:49Bunnie XO?

  What about you, Tina? You want to shout out yours? Are you gonna say, I don't know?

• 1:32:53Speaker 04

  I do know.

• 1:32:54Bunnie XO?

  Okay.

• 1:32:54Speaker 04

  But it's long. Cause I have a lot of hands in my.

• 1:33:00Bunnie XO?

  Just tell them the most important ones.

• 1:33:02Speaker 04

  T I N N N. It's like a long thing.

• 1:33:04Bunnie XO?

  Well, if you go to Danielle's page, you'll be able to know that you'll find the right one. Yeah.

• 1:33:09Speaker 04

  I'll be tagged in there somewhere.

• 1:33:11Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 1:33:12Speaker 03

  Also, I'm writing another book.

• 1:33:14Speaker 04

  Oh, she is writing another book.

• 1:33:15Speaker 03

  It's a fictional book, though.

• 1:33:17Bunnie XO?

  I love that.

• 1:33:17Speaker 04

  It's okay. It's good. I read some of it.

• 1:33:19Bunnie XO?

  I think I want to do fictional too. I love writing, so I want to try it.

• 1:33:23Speaker 04

  She's so good at it.

• 1:33:24Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 1:33:24Speaker 03

  I love writing. I never thought that writing could actually be, um, a thing of mine and then.

• 1:33:31Bunnie XO?

  It's therapeutic. It's cathartic as fuck.

• 1:33:33Speaker 03

  It is. But I get in a zone. I'm like.

• 1:33:36Speaker 04

  No, you should.

• 1:33:37Speaker 03

  But like, the house is on fire. I'm like, what?

• 1:33:39Bunnie XO?

  You're like, leave me alone.

• 1:33:40Speaker 03

  Yeah. It is great. But no, I appreciate you guys having us. This, this has been one of my, it's one of my, um. What is it called? My vision board?

• 1:33:51Speaker 00

  Yeah. Well, I told you we were gonna do this whenever.

• 1:33:54Speaker 03

  I know, I know, but it's something that I really wanted to to happen and I am very appreciative that you you had us on your show because you are a fucking amazing you and when I say I'm a big fan of yours, I am a huge fan of yours.

• 1:34:07Speaker 00

  Well, we're a fan of each other, so.

• 1:34:09Speaker 03

  You're just amazing. I love that you own exactly who you are. You never hide from any of the bullshit that comes with social media because social media comes with a lot of fucking shit. It's crazy.

• 1:34:20Speaker 00

  I cuss a lot.

• 1:34:21Speaker 03

  It's all right. So do I. You are a image and I I appreciate it.

• 1:34:29Speaker 00

  Thank you. I love you so much. Thank you for your.

• 1:34:31Speaker 03

  Somebody with a similar background. I'm just like, you rock.

• 1:34:34Speaker 00

  Yeah, so do you and so do you, Tina.

• 1:34:37Speaker 03

  We do shit.

• 1:34:38Speaker 00

  Yeah. Well, I can't wait to see you guys at another show, too. So you guys are gonna have to come whenever we're wherever you guys are. You guys are always welcome. Jay loves you guys, too. He loves Tina. He's obsessed with Tina.

• 1:34:49Speaker 03

  What's not to love?

• 1:34:50Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 1:34:51Speaker 03

  Literally. Tina is such a stinker.

• 1:34:54Speaker 00

  Oh, all right. Thank you, guys, for being here. Thank you, guys, for tuning in. I will see you guys next week. Bye.

• 1:35:04Speaker 00

  We use Shopify for our storefront at bunnyxo.com and one thing I've learned from running an online store is that you definitely don't have to be an e-commerce expert to get started. I think a lot of people get intimidated by the website side of starting a business, but Shopify makes that part so much easier. One of my favorite things is having everything in one place when you're running a business. You already have a million things going on, so the last thing you want is for managing your storefront to be one more thing to stress about. Shopify makes it easy to get your store launched, manage it, and actually focus on selling. They also have pre-built themes and an AI site builder that can help you create a professional-looking storefront without having to build a website from scratch. And if a friend asks me about starting a store before the holidays, I tell them, don't wait

• 1:35:48Speaker 00

  until Black Friday. Get it launched, learn what works for you, and have everything ready before that holiday traffic starts coming in. If you're ready to launch your business before Black Friday, go to Shopify.com/bunny to start your free trial. That's Shopify.com/B-U-N-N-I-E. Go to Shopify.com/bunny today to hear your first.