While reflecting on her past divorces from Jeezy and from Freddy Harteis, Jeannie Mai compares the process to “experiencing death alive.” And although she feels that way, she admits she would still get married again because she “loves love.”
Jeannie Mai Divorces First Husband Freddy Harteis
Appearing on the January 29 episode of the ‘Question Everything‘ podcast, 47-year-old TV host Jeannie Mai revealed what she’s learned from her past two marriages that ultimately ended in divorce. She even commented on any differences between the two as she never shared children in her first union, but welcomed a child in her second.
In her first marriage, Jeannie Mai was married to rancher and TV personality Freddy Harteis. They were together for a total of 13 years, married for just over 10 of those years. The two tied the knot on August 11, 2007 and split in October 2017. Their divorce was finalized in December 2018. It was speculated that their union ended over differences about starting a family.
After divorcing Mai, Harteis became a father to three children. He met his partner, model Linsey Toole, on the set of a photo shoot in 2018. Within months of them meeting, she was pregnant. They then tied the knot in June 2022. They share a daughter, Emersyn Harteis, born in November 2018, and a son, Huck Harteis, born in October 2019. Their third child, a daughter named Lyla Harteis, was born in 2023.
Following the October 2017 split with Freddy Harteis, Jeannie Mai had nothing but positive things to say about her ex. She said:
“He’s the best man I know. I married him because he’s like my dad – very loyal, very compassionate, so funny, an awesome guy. And in our 13 years together, there was never any lies, no betrayal, no cheating, nothing.”
Jeannie Mai’s Second Husband Jeezy Divorces Host
Mai remained single until she met Jeezy, born Jay Wayne Jenkins, and began dating. The two met in November 2018, on the set of the former daytime talk show ‘The Real.’ According to Mai, they soon went on their first date on November 28, 2018. They continued to privately date until making their first public appearance in August 2019 at Jeezy’s inaugural SnoBall Gala in Atlanta, Georgia.
In April 2020, after two years of dating, Jeezy popped the question in his home filled with Vietnamese food and decor. The two were reportedly supposed to get engaged in Vietnam, as Mai is of Chinese-Vietnamese descent. A year later in April 2021, the couple tied the knot at their Atlanta home. By September 2021, the two revealed they were expecting their first child together after fertility issues. In January 2022, Jeezy and Jeannie Mai welcomed their daughter, Monaco Mai Jenkins, now 4.
After two years of marriage and a beautiful baby girl, Jeezy field for divorce in September 2023. The filing revealed that the estranged couple were “living in a bona fide state of separation.” He also claimed his union with Mai was “irretrievably broken” with “no hope for reconciliation.”
The “Soul Survivor” rapper also initially sought primary physical custody and legal custody of their daughter, but later amended his request to joint physical custody. The filing caught Mai off-guard and also turned into a messy divorce and custody battle. By June 2024, the couple finalized their divorce with settlement and custody details sealed. However, in June 2025, Jeezy revealed he won joint custody.
Jeannie Mai Reflects On Heartbreaking Divorces From Jeezy And Freddy Harteis
Since finalizing her divorce with Jeezy in June 2024, Jeannie Mai is now reflecting on it, along with her first marriage and divorce with Freddy Harteis. In her interview on the ‘Question Everything‘ podcast, she said:
“My first marriage, I got married at 26. And for me, that was too early. But I stayed for 10 years. And I don’t even want to say stayed, like I was married for 10 years. And we eventually grew apart. But that part of my life was really learning marriage and being committed as this wife. I’m like, ‘How do I make this work?’ And we had two very completely different lives and all these things. We just grew apart. It literally was just that. Because as you know, at the age of 35, it’s a very different time in a woman’s life than anything in your 20s. And so I was only single at 35 for like maybe a year or so. And then I got into my next relationship. So taking from my own advice, I’ve never really got to be single since I was like in my early, early 20s. Yeah. So that’s why this like moment is Disneyland for me.”
When asked if it was harder to divorce with or without a child, Mai said:
“Divorce is heartbreaking no matter what. It’s one of the greatest pains that any human has to endure, honestly. And I’m sure there’s many people who can tell me, ‘Oh my God, are you kidding, girl? I love my divorce.’ There’s that side too. But you just never wish for it, you know? You never wish to corrupt something that’s so planned and intentioned to be forever, right? That’s like a huge pressure. At the same time, divorce is also the greatest awakening. So it’s like, would you rather be sleeping so peacefully and never feel the awakening? I can’t tell everybody that, no. But it’s not to deny that it’s not heartbreaking. It’s absolutely both.
So children aside, I was heartbroken both for me and the partner in many different fragments. Like imagining a vase just shattering. There’s no way to put together the pieces. At the same time, I actually thank God for this all the time. I am so lucky that Monaco was only one when this happened. So she’s not going to remember what that turmoil was like. And she’s not going to. Like that’s not something I want her to ever have to think about. My job is to define peace for her. So she’s going to get that. But I can’t imagine for parents. I have so many parents that have kids and they’re going through for divorce and they all feel it. It’s a wreckage on everybody. I think the majority is going to say, you know, with children, it’s harder. With divorce, it’s just, it’s experiencing death alive.
There’s no way to understand that feeling of space shared with somebody and all of a sudden it closing in to where you even wonder if you can trust yourself and your thoughts. Because one day you had a plan and you had these thoughts and then suddenly it becomes something else. There’s also the not knowing every day because divorce does this inhumane thing that forces you to then protect yourself to get what you need from the divorce. It’s the worst because it’s like survival mode. You literally have to take your grief and put on your hard hat and go right into, ‘I’m going to fight for everything I’ve got. I’m going to fight for everything I deserve.’ It’s like the worst transition. It requires ego, it requires selfishness and it requires these things to protect yourself that I never ever want to have to worry about in order to know that I’m okay.
At the same time, I don’t want to tell people, would you never get divorced or would you never get married so that you don’t have to experience divorce? Because marriage is also so sacred and beautiful. I’m so thankful to have so many healthy marriages around me that I still celebrate and want more years to come for them. And I’m never going to regret that I got married because I’m so thankful to have experienced love in so many different ways. Now I just have to, instead of experiencing love because I’ve got that down, I have to define what healthy love looks like for me.
But that first starts with me, first starts with me. There’s no other way that I’m going to go find these bios and this recommendation and these blind dates to tell me what healthy love looks like for me. We’re all a perfect key. We’ve got little holes and dents from things that have happened in our life and we’ve got these perfect grommets to fit in what we need because we’ve built to where we are now. When you find that match, it’s a beautiful thing, but always remember you were uniquely that key first.
I love love. I will never give up on love and I love that there’s so many ways to find it besides just being in love with someone else. I would [get married again]. I actually would because I really don’t want to ever put a block on myself. I don’t think love is like, you can never put a container around love. You can never say like, ‘Oh, I’m only going to find love if I’m saying I’m never going to get married again.’ It just feels like it’s a block for me. For me, I enjoy what love brings. I enjoy watching two humans come together and release their guard and just become their childlike versions of what they hope love to be.
That’s such a beautiful, special, privileged place to reach somebody. So it sucks when it breaks and then it turns ugly and foul and all the things in the burn book comes out. Like that sucks. But when you meet that person’s heart, like we’re supposed to take care of it and leave it better than it was. And I haven’t learned how to do that, but I do believe that there’s other people out there that believe that like me. And the best part is, even if I never find it, I’m so happy that I have that within myself because I know what it feels like now.”
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