For Niecy Nash, Being With Jessica Betts Was the First Time She "Had Ever Felt Fully Seen"

Despite rumors that Jessica was the wedding singer at Niecy's second wedding, they were first friends for four and a half years. Niecey discovered Jessica playing her music in 2015's Same Difference. "I just followed her on social media and that's all I did. I never looked at her and was like, 'Oh, you can get it.' It was none of that," Niecy revealed during her episode of Red Table Talk. "People think that we were in a relationship while I was still married, which is a lie. She was in a long-term relationship too."

As for how their friendship turned romantic, it all happened while Niecy was filming in New Jersey. "A lot of people think that this little thundercat just came in here and picked me up and turned me every which way but loose," Niecy said with a laugh. "I gave myself permission to feel what I felt in that moment. And to be unapologetic about it." The moment in question is after Niecy invited Jessica back to her place to watch a movie. "The minute she put her hand on my head and touched my hand, I got those butterflies and I was like, 'Damn,'" Jessica added. Niecy then kissed her on the cheek as she was leaving before Jessica "asked her if she wanted to go lay down."

While Jessica may have been the first to officially say "I love you," Niecy knew it was coming. "She was like, 'I'm coming out there to see you, and I gotta tell you something but I gotta tell you face-to-face.' I already knew what you was going to say and I was practicing," she said to Jessica with a grin. We don't even have to imagine Niecy practicing how to say "I love you" back as she recreated it for her Red Table Talk episode. As to what their relationship means to her, for Niecy, "it was the first time in my life I had ever felt fully seen."

Jessica was ready to bare it all for the Red Table. When asked about the proposal, she didn't waste any time before letting the world know it happened while they were "skinny dippin' in the hot tub." Of course, Niecy didn't want that part to be known. "You tell everything," Niecy said with a look of shock. "You said, 'If anybody gonna get on my nerves, it's gonna be you. Marry me,'" she revealed while impersonating Jessica. Niecy's answer: "Yeah, man. Whatever."

After getting her ring, Niecy was ready to celebrate but Jessica was left wondering about her own ring. "When do I get my ring?" Jessica asked, to which Niecy explained it would happen at the wedding due to tradition. "We ain't traditional people," Jessica apparently said during the moment. "I went upstairs, got her ring, came back downstairs and I said, 'Marry me.' So we engaged each other on the same night," Niecy shared.

During her first marriage to Don Nash, whom she was married to from 1994-2007, Niecy stated she'd been "looking for a savior." During her second marriage from 2011-2020 to Jay Tucker, Niecy had been looking "for partnership and I also wanted to be married." When she met Jessica, she'd not been looking for anything. In fact, Jessica stated that Niecy "was very reluctant. I was chasing her."

Niecy had two big reasons as to why she was initially reluctant. After her second divorce, she'd planned to just "live my life and have fun." Her second reason was that she was fearful that her friendship with Jessica might not survive a relationship. "I never want this person not in my life," Niecy explained.

When it came to how her children felt about the relationship, they were able to meet Jessica prior to Niecy and her dating. "They were able to meet her and form their own opinion about her as a person. And they all were like, 'Oh, my God. She's so cool. Oh, my God. I like her.' They was exchanging numbers and all of this and that. So they already liked her," she remarked.

Not to say they weren't a bit confused at first. "My youngest daughter, she reminded me. She was like, 'Wait a minute, Mom, are you the same mom who was like, 'Girl, I'm strictly dickly?' And I was like, wah wah," Niecy added with a laugh. "I was like, 'Yeah, no, yeah. Yeah, but no.'"

When Niecy first announced her marriage to Jessica, a lot of outlets were focused on the idea that she had "finally" come out. "And I said, 'Well, come out of where?' Because I wasn't in anywhere. I wasn't living a sexually repressed life," she explained. "I loved the boys I was with when I was with them. And now this is who I love."

Her youngest daughter, Dia, made her sit down and watch a YouTube video about labels which left Niecy more confused than ever. Instead of feeling tied to a label, Niecy feels more comfortable without one. "If I had to label myself in this moment, I would label myself with the term free," she added. Prior to Jessica, Niecy had never been with a woman and had never found herself attracted to one.