Exclusive – Waka Flocka Flame opened up about his split from Tammy Rivera in a recent Zoom interview with HipHopDX.

During the conversation, Waka Flocka acknowledged there were plenty of things he could’ve done differently to prevent a divorce, while speaking diplomatically on the dissolution of their romantic relationship,  the central focus of Season 3 of their WEtv reality show Waka & Tammy: What The Flocka.

When asked if he imagined going through a divorce on television, he responded sternly, “Fuck no.” He continued, “I chose this life 14, 15 years ago, the whole relationship, when I chose to get in this arena of being a celebrity, so it is what it is. It’s definitely depressing with egg on your face, but when it’s like, for me, it just feels more comforting to say, ‘Man, I feel like I caused it.’

“That’s me being a bigger man. That’s not saying me, I’m the reason that we split. That’s not the reason. There’s no reason. That cheating stuff, that shit happened eight years ago. The reason we split is … there’s no reason, I’m telling you. You don’t even know. It was just a mutual feeling.”

It’s been over two years since the breakup, so Waka and Rivera have adjusted to co-parenting and being strictly friends. But it’s still fresh in the Season 3 debut, which premiered on August 18. Toward the beginning of the episode, Waka and his brother are at the grocery store when the reality of his domestic situation appears to smack him in the face.

“My brother came to the house like, ‘I’m about to stay with you, because you’re single, I don’t know where your head space is at,’” he recalled. “It’s been two-and-a-half years. This episode might bring these feelings back though. I don’t know what I felt [then], but I know what I feel. I was definitely in a mental … it was serious. It’s serious, no matter how you want to put it. But we separated with grace.”

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Waka Flocka has since evolved and found himself in “magical ways.” These days, he’s simply looking for peace as he navigates his numerous business endeavors and raises his daughter Charlie, who also appears in the show.

“I just upped everything in my life,” he said. “I upped my meditations, I upped my eating patterns, I upped my everything, man. I’m telling you, it’s impossible. I have to do things that vibrate high.”

He’s also working on his diet. As he joked in a recent Instagram post, he no longer wants to have a “Mr. Frog body.”

“I was just going backward,” he said. “It was like, ‘What happens to somebody that eats vegan and goes back to eating toxic, basically?’ And I see I’m getting bigger. I’m like, ‘OK.’ The fun part about that, it’s always fun to detox and eat clean. It feels good when you eat clean.”

 

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Waka Flocka took a more serious tone and started doling out advice like he was paid to do it. Although he noted his life isn’t “perfect,” he said the difficult moments have taught him invaluable lessons — and he’s experienced plenty of hardship. In 2013, he lost his younger brother and fellow rapper KayO Redd to suicide. As if that wasn’t traumatizing enough, he lost another brother just a few years later.

“I think every moment of each individual person’s life is meant to strengthen them, not hurt them,” he said. “Going through my breakup taught me all this. When you see these things, to me, I think when I see people or situations that are super toxic, it let me know I’ve grown bigger than this. It’s time to grow up.

“I’m not giving them the credit. You have no control over it. Zero. It lets me know, when a situation is toxic, I’ve got to go because I’m bigger than this. Not ‘I’m better than it; I’m bigger spiritually. I’m mentally stronger than this. I need to go.’”

Believe it or not, Waka Flocka Flame learned a lot by being on reality television. It taught him how to look at things from another perspective.

“What helped me was having a TV show,” he explained. “My first time when I ever seen Tammy hurt was on television. It’s like, ‘No, Waka, you’re out of control.’ I didn’t have nobody around me to be like, ‘Yo!’ And that’s not for me to blame anybody. It let me know I needed to be that for my friends.”

While it may be over for Waka Flocka and Tammy Rivera, he’s vowed to handle his next serious relationship differently.

“One example is me never trying to say I can put my woman in position,” he said. “Who am I to tell her how to live her life and put her in a cage and make her feel like if we ain’t on good terms her life ain’t perfect no more? Then she got a personality crisis and lose herself. I will walk with her on her own path she’s walking and be an advisor and protect her emotions. That’s what I’ll do. I’ll sum it up: I’ll just protect my girl’s emotions at all costs.”

Waka & Tammy: What The Flocka airs on WEtv every Thursday at 9 p.m. ET.