Interview by Jamie Foster Brown
(Excerpted from the August 2009 issue of Sister 2 Sister magazine)

Boy, this was quite a feat. I met Toya Carter for the first time at T.I.’s going-away party in Miami. We talked briefly. She was with T.I.’s “ride or die” fiancée Tiny. Tiny and Toya are starring in their own reality show with BET. Lil’ Wayne had told me about his ex-wife Toya some years ago, but this was my first time meeting this beautiful chocolate drop. We decided to meet again while she was filming for her show in New York, but wow, that was hectic. We were to meet at Le Parker Meridien Hotel, do the interview and then she and the crew were to get back to Atlanta on a later flight.

Well, as shoots go, everything was late. The crew arrived late, we had to wait but were treated to a quick lunch by BET publicist Michelle Clark and then whisked up to Toya. We had about 20 minutes to talk and then let Whitney Thomas our photographer, go to work. It was crazy. But it was fun—the normal S2S excitement.

Toya described Lil’ Wayne as a husband and father and spoke about her and Tiny’s BET series . She was reluctant to say anything about the then-ongoing rumor about Lauren London carrying Lil’ Wayne’s baby, even though we had heard that Lil’ Wayne was waiting to get the DNA test results.
Even Lil’ Wayne’s daughter Reginaé had something to say—she talked about “stunnin’ like my daddy” Lil’ Wayne. That’s on s2smagazine.com. Read on to find out how these three get along. It is quite interesting, I must say.

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Jamie: Are you an only child?
Toya: No. I have four brothers and one little sister.

Jamie: And were you in the middle?
Toya: I’m the second child.

Jamie: Your dad was getting ready to marry somebody else. So did he marry her?
Toya: Yes, he married her.

Jamie: And you were like 13 or 14 years old when this was happening?
Toya: Yes.

Jamie: So what were you feeling at that time?
Toya: At the time I was living with another relative in their house with their kids. And so I was feeling a certain kind of way, but—

Jamie: You were feeling what? Abandoned, or you were you all by yourself?
Toya: I was feeling all by myself, and that’s when I met Wayne. He kind of was there at that time.

Jamie: How was he, in terms of being with you? Because he comes from kind of a broken home too. So was it something compatible that you all felt at that time?
Toya: Yes, I think that’s what it was.

Jamie: Did you all talk about that stuff?
Toya: Yes. We all talked about what was going on in his life and his father not being there and losing his stepfather. And me, you know, not having my mom and dad around or whatever, and how it affected my life. But we always had each other. When we was younger, we had this bond. He was very affectionate, showed me a lot of attention, you know, things I was missing at home. So I kind of fell ... you know.

Jamie: All the women that I talk to say Wayne knows how to treat women. It’s like once he gets his claws in you it’s hard to get out. Has he changed much since then?
Toya: Yes, he’s changed, but like some things for the better, some things for the worse. Some things he’s better with, like his relationship with his daughter by me.

Jamie: What is that? Tell me about the relationship.
Toya: At one point, they hardly used to talk, and now he makes that a priority.

Jamie: He makes that effort?
Toya: Yes. Calls her every night and wants to know what’s going on with school. He calls me. Whether he’s in Europe or wherever he may be, he’ll call and see what’s going on with her. He keeps in touch. He always keeps a good friendship with me no matter what he’s doing. With his daughter, he’s there financially. He’s a great man.

Jamie: Did you have any idea he was going to be as big as he is? And how does [your daughter] Reginaé react to her father being like the biggest rapper in the world?
Toya: Oh, she’s sucking it all in. She’s loving it right now. She’s loving the attention. I keep moving her schools and stuff because she’ll go to school thinking she is just, whuu!

Jamie: How are you going to deal with that? Because you know that’s very important to keep her [grounded]?
Toya: Right. Because I took her out of Christian school and I put her in another school, but now I’m going to put her back in Christian school because I ain’t having these problems; them people don’t know nothing, you know?

Jamie: How old were you all when you decided just to call it quits? You said you were 22?
Toya: It was, like, four years ago.

Jamie: And you just decided that? Was there anything in particular to make you feel fed up?
Toya: Yes, it was just a lot of stuff—a lot of different things. You know, I’d rather not talk about what had led up to me wanting to move away.

Jamie: Were you living with him, though?
Toya: Yes. We lived together.

Jamie: How long did you live together?
Toya: Two years.

Jamie: And did you cook? What was it like?
Toya: Yes. I cooked. I mean, I did everything. I felt like I did everything.

Jamie: And that’s what he would come home to, even when he was on the road and stuff?
Toya: Yes.

Jamie: What did you think about him getting all tatted up? I was like, “Where are you? All I see is ink.”
Toya: Right. I think that is crazy.

Jamie: What is that about?
Toya: I think it’s just a phase he’s going through. I went through a phase when I was with him when I wanted to get little trinket tattoos. I had to stop myself.

Read Toya’s full interview in the August 2009 issue of Sister 2 Sister magazine to see how well she and Nivea get along and whether she thinks Wayne can ever be a one-woman man.