Since 2017, viewers have tuned into Black Love, seeing married couples tell their love stories of tragedy and triumph in a way unlike ever before. And it’s all thanks to Tommy and Codie Oliver. They created the show to combat the negative and incorrect stereotypes about Black marriages. But all good things must come to an end, and the couple spoke with Shadow and Act Unscripted about why they are saying goodbye to the OWN show.
Fans of the show cannot believe it’s over. But Codie says it was simply time for them to move on.
“Logistically, Tommy and I are the only crew for the show. We do every interview together because we wanted to create an intimate space with the couples. And that's taxing on on our lives on,” she said. “We love it, but it's something that as our family has grown, as our businesses have grown, it's really hard to do it that way. But it's still important to us, which is why we didn't just change it. We decided that this should be the end of the series. So partially because of that and partly because it feels like we should quit while we're ahead, for lack of a better description.”
For the first time ever, the couple stepped from behind the camera to in front of the camera to sharing their in-depth love story. It’s one for the books. They met at a film festival, went on a date, and were practically inseparable. Within months, they were engaged and married. They had three children in two years, and have been married for six years. Their entire marriage has been filming other people’s love stories on Black Love. But Tommy admits he was hesitant to be a subject this time around.
“I had no interest in doing it, being in front of the camera and doing any of it at all. But it is something that we've been asked about a lot, and we have been the benefactors of people sharing with us,” he explained. “Our relationship is certainly better because of the information that we've gotten and the relationships that have been formed, the counsel, and support. And so it's something that we thought made sense as we were ending the series. And that's a lot of anything that.”
Watch the full interview above where Tommy and Codie talk about sustaining their own marriage and their favorite couples on the show.
Black Love airs every Saturday on OWN.
