Rap legend Da Brat and her wife, Jesseca” Judy” Harris-Dupart, are exposing it all on their WE tv reality series, Brat Loves Judy. Season 3 of the show chronicles the couple as they prepare for their biggest job ever as they prepare for the birth of their first child. The newlywed couple gives fans an all-access pass into their personal lives, sharing the highs and lows of marriage while they continue to merge their families and experience all the joys and changes that pregnancy brings. 

They give viewers the backstory of their IVF journey that was plagued with health issues. Fans will also get to see that couple work together on a new product called “Kaleidoscope X Brat” and they expose the difficult task of scaling back on their busy careers for the sake of their family.

Ahead of the premiere,  Brat and Judy spoke with Blavity about Brat’s pregnancy and They also open up about trying to find a Black donor, which proved to be more challenging than not.

Blavity: Obviously, this season takes us through you all’s egg removal process and implantation, which in the first episode we see opens up pandora’s box for different complications that occur. So how important was it for both of you to expose the reality of what was going on during this time?

Brat: Well, I think it’s very important to both of us that people know that fertility is not an easy journey and that this is something you really want to do, be prepared for all the ups and downs. And to hang in there, and never give up on what you want or give up on your dreams what you really want. 

Blavity: You also took us through the sperm donor selection process, which many people have never seen before. It was entertaining, but it was also educational as far as what comes with what goes into picking a donor. You ran into a situation because you preferred a Black donor and quickly learned that your choices were limited. Were you deterred from doing so when that hump came up?

Judy: Oh, that was discouraging– I guess, because we had never thought about any other choices. So that part was a little discouraging, but it didn’t stop us from still continuing our search. It just made us want to search different cryobanks to see if this was the thing everywhere. And from there, we were educated more about how Black men are not high in the sperm donor pool. It’s really only a few.

Blavity: Becoming pregnant at 48 is not necessarily unheard of, but to society, it can still be considered taboo. We saw Janet Jackson do it. We saw Halle Berry do it and a few others. But you both have really let us into your full experience from when you guys first decided to start a family. And, Brat, you mentioned previously that you want viewers to know if this is something they you want to do, to go ahead and try everything that you can to in order to make that happen. So what else are you hoping that this specific journey shows your viewers?

Brat: I hope that this shows the viewers that anything is possible. Like I said before– never give up on something that you really want. Miracles happen. It doesn’t matter what age you are. If it’s in God’s will, it can happen. We have great support and a great support system from Hope Fertility and we have amazing doctors, and everybody prayed, and we were all positive. And it’s just an amazing thing.

Blavity: Judy, the super trailers showed that in this season, you have some tough conversations with your older children about their upbringing or different discomforts that they feel like they had. And now that you’ve had those talks with them, how would you describe the state of your relationship now and how does that impact the way in which you look to a parent you and Brat’s child child differently?

Judy: So in speaking to all of my children and knowing that each of them felt like there wasn’t as much of a physical presence as there should have been on my journey to chase success or however you want to call it, I do. I have been trying this whole entire season…you’re going to hear me keep saying, ‘I got to put a team together. I’ve got to put a team together. I got to put a team together.’ I have been really intentional about trying to put a supportive team together to be able to be there and me not necessarily be all the way involved in my business. But to be a little bit more present, especially at the beginning of our baby’s life.

Blavity: Brat, with your music, hosting and being on the radio, how are you trying to prepare to scale back on work in order to really be as present as you can throughout this process as far as enjoying your pregnancy and then when the baby is here?

Judy: She’s not. I’m about to jump and she’s mad. That’s another part of the d**n thing that you’re going to see where we actually get into an argument about it. Because she’s mad, she won’t sit down. Half of the time we’re trying to do stuff around the house that she’s used to doing and I tell her, ‘Don’t do it. Let me do it.’ It makes her cringe. 

Brat: I’m used to being productive. I like cleaning up. I like doing laundry and I like folding and putting away clothes. 

Judy: And you like being a person to carry the suitcase to the car and you can’t. 

Brat: I like doing things and I don’t like to be told that I can’t do things. So yeah, I’m a little rough around the edges when it comes to that because I don’t like feeling unproductive or not helpful. I like being the caretaker and the person. I am continuing to work right now. My last show is May 6 in Vegas, the Lovers and Friends Festival. My doctor told me I can do it. So when the doctor tells me that I need to chill and whatever and stop doing X, Y, and Z and that is that going to work? I will reluctantly.

Judy: I’ve been trying to get her to relax because she was that to me and I haven’t been pregnant in this relationship. So she’s been caring for me our whole entire relationship. And I’ve been trying to be that to her. And she doesn’t want to let me do it. She wants to be the person that owns that. 

Brat: I will. I’m sure I’m going to have to chill out soon. I’ve scaled back a little bit. Not as much as she wants me to, but I will.

Blavity: There have also been some issues that are that have risen on Brat’s side of the family. Your sister, LisaRaye, is never one to mince words. Where would you say that things stand now? And has she been supportive as you’d like for her to be throughout the pregnancy?

Brat: As long as we include her, she’s definitely supportive. She just does not like to be not included in anything that’s happening in my life. 

Blavity: Great. So you told her the gender of the baby first before you guys did the gender reveal? There are no problems as long as you know she’s No. 1 on the call list? You guys are good?

Brat: Yeah, as long as she knows through us and not through social media, she’s fine. And to this day, I still don’t regret not telling her about my relationship, because that was my choice. I am grown. I think she tends to forget that I am an adult and she’s used to being the big sister, you know? So I felt like I did it how I wanted to do it. And it’s perfect and it’s still perfect. And I’m very proud of my decision of who I love, who I married, and who I am having a child with. And she loves my wife. She just hates it that I didn’t tell her when it first started.

Blavity: What are you both looking forward to most in terms of raising a child together?

Brat: I think we’re both just looking forward to just every little thing like seeing the baby and to see the baby come out of me, first of all, and holding the baby and watching the baby take its first breath and just all the processes of everything. I have like carpal tunnel now and I have all these things going on in my body, but I’m not bothered. It’s just amazing to me to experience what it’s like to carry a child. And I’m going to be amazed, I’m sure, by the birth and the feeling of holding the baby. My wife tells me about it all the time. She’s always like, ‘Just wait until you hold that baby. You’re never going to experience love like that in your life.’ So it’s so many things that we look forward to, like the baby’s first everything, just holding it and kissing the baby and talking to the baby and spoiling the baby. 

Judy: We are excited about the first of everything. This is Brat’s first time–this entire journey. And she shares it all. She was in tears when we first found out she was pregnant. The other day, you could see the baby moving through her stomach. So, the whole entire thing has been everything to her. Even when we got somebody sent us the first pair of shoes for the baby. She opened the box of the shoes, and she started crying. She was like, ‘The foot on the ultrasound is going to be in the shoe.’ I’m just I’m excited for her to be able to experience all of that.

Blavity: We know that you guys are having a boy. In a recent interview, Jermaine Dupri said that he’s hoping that you guys pick Jermaine as the name. What do you guys think about it?

Brat: JD is crazy. I love him so much. He’s been a huge inspiration in my life. He’s like my big brother, for real. He’s one of the people that I know who genuinely loves me and has my best interest at heart. That’s cute, but we already have a name and it’s not Jermaine.