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By: Felicia Pride | TheLoop21 (Add to your loop)
Tue, 07/13/2010 - 08:53

Kobe Bryant, his wife Vanessa and their two children.

What’s up with our twisted obsession with wives of the rich and famous?

The Real Housewives of Orange County, Basketball Wives, and the ongoing legal soap opera starring Elin & Kelis.

“Since time immortal,” Aliya S. King suggests, “we’ve been obsessed with how the other half lives.” A journalist and New York Times bestselling author, King dives into the turbulent, sad, loving, dysfunctional and sometimes envious lives of rappers’ wives in her new novel 'Platinum' (Touchstone, July 2010).



The book’s idea came to King after writing an article for Vibe in 2005 about the same topic. She trailed the lives of several women married to rap artists such as DMX, Wyclef Jean, Snoop Dogg and others. 



She’s honest in saying that media has “fanned the flame of our obsession” at times, to our, and the other half’s, detriment. 



While our eyes are glued to the screen, and our ears to beauty shop gossip, do we ever stop to think that these wives are real people, not merely objects of our entertainment? Even when women like Shaunie O'Neal (who has filed for divorce from Shaq) ride the reality television bandwagon for motives unknown, do we ever stop and consider the pain behind the champagne lifestyle?



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“Although they had many financial perks,” King shares about the wives she interviewed, “quite a few of them were downright miserable and would trade their husband’s fame and fortune for the simple lives they once had.”



Besides her Vibe article, King also co-wrote Keep the Faith with Faith Evans, former wife of rapper Notorious B.I.G., a book which helped to give the R&B songstress a much-needed voice. 



“The struggles,” King attests about the lives of celebrity wives, “are deep.” For one, there’s the question of identity. Who are you outside of your rich, famous husband? “At one point, you need purpose, or you will be insecure,” King points out. “I think that applies to all marriages, but particularly in a marriage with a well-known celebrity.” 



There’s that catchall golddigger label that most celebrity wives (save for Beyoncé) can’t escape despite intentions or commitments. Granted, there are some women who work hard for, and deserve, this studded crown. But it’s a term that’s thrown around way too loosely.



The pressures of fame that wives feel right along with their husbands can’t be denied either. There’s a rather stunning scene in 'Platinum,' where Beth, the pregnant wife of a rapper not far removed from DMX, is on a frantic mission to pack up her four sons, get them in the limo waiting outside, so that they can make the next flight to Anguilla to find her missing husband. In the midst of the disturbing chaos, an MTV crew tries to film for a new reality television show while a journalist tries to interview her.