Dominique Lenard Shares The Reality About Life After The NBA

The fact present Basketball Wives is thought for glorifying the glitzy, glamorous existence of the NBA’s first girls — a class of actuality star loosely outlined as ladies who’re married or engaged to, have youngsters with or are divorced from big-name skilled athletes. Many occasions, the “for actual for actual” story of those ladies who stand beside their males by the nice, the dangerous and the ugly appears to get misplaced within the drama. 

Dominique Lenard, 37, is the latest member of the Basketball Wives TV sorority, however what we noticed of her on the sequence was solely a glimpse of her reality. She is the previous spouse to NBA star Voshon Lenard, and her “position” on the present was to be a supporting participant to the principle forged: particularly, long-standing forged member Jennifer Williams’ “hype man” within the latter’s feud with fellow veteran Evelyn Lozada. 

Unsurprisingly, a lot of what you see of Dominique on the present is made-for-TV drama. In actuality (actual actuality), she is certainly a really shut pal of Williams, however she can also be a mom, an entrepreneur and a 20-year vet of the NBA WAG (Wives and Girlfriends) Membership.  

It’s been one yr since Dominique, who’s now 37, divorced Voshon, now 46. She is lastly coming to phrases with how her previous has affected her and is looking for her true identification outdoors of being a basketball spouse — a title, she has realized, she was by no means actually proud of. “I stayed 10 years longer than I wished,” she says. “However ultimately I spotted our relationship had ran its course, and earlier than I grew to become a bitter girl. I wished to turn into a free girl.”

A portray hangs on the principle stage of the three-story home within the suburbs of Detroit that Dominique as soon as shared with Voshon. It contains a girl carrying a bag with three infants within it. The image represents a girl with baggage, with no husband, who has to hold the load by herself. It was painted and given to Dominique by her mom after she had her daughters however earlier than she received married, to remind her that, primarily, she’d be elevating her daughters alone. 

On the day of our interview, Dominique is carrying an all-white sleeveless duster, gentle blue denim distressed denims and shiny pink flip-flop sneakers. Her hair is a honey blonde, half wrapped right into a bun on the highest of her head and the opposite half hanging loosely down her again. She is relaxed and carefree — not what I used to be anticipating from a actuality star. From what I had seen on the present, the celebs of Basketball Wives had been all the time on edge and prepared for fight. However Dominique is calm and alluring and appeared to glow with a way of being reborn. 

Dominique and Voshon met when she was 14 after she moved subsequent door to him throughout her freshman yr of highschool. On the time, she didn’t know he was within the NBA. Dominique could be on her strategy to the bus cease to go to work and Voshon would cease her on the best way to speak. “If [Voshon] seen her popping out, we had been mad,” says her mom, Joyce Barnett. “Dominique was younger!” The 2 started relationship.

Her mother and father, who had been actively concerned of their church, stated they had been “harm and embarrassed” about Voshon and Dominique’s newfound love, however earlier than they may put a cease to it, Dominique was pregnant. Her mother and father each have completely different theories on how Dominique and Voshon grew to become intimate, however they each agree that Voshon instigated the connection. 

Dominique had been attending Renaissance Excessive, one in all 4 of the best performing colleges within the Detroit Public Faculty system, however due to the calls for of motherhood, she dropped out of Renaissance and enrolled into Oak Park Excessive Faculty — the place take a look at performances scored within the backside 6% of Michigan colleges. However Oak Park Excessive supplied a home-school program that may enable Dominique to finish highschool and get a diploma.

Dominique completed highschool a yr sooner than anticipated, however solely as a result of she had a powerful help system that included her mother and father, siblings and shut pals.  

After graduating, Dominique and the twins moved from Detroit to Miami because of the calls for of Voshon’s profession. She needed to comply with him if she wished her household to be collectively. This additionally meant any plans of Dominique going to school had been additionally placed on maintain.  

Regardless of all of it, issues went easily for the couple over the subsequent decade. That they had one other little one, received married, and Dominique ultimately went again to highschool half time on the College of Michigan. Then Voshon retired from the NBA, and the closeness that Dominique all the time assumed would include proximity by no means materialized.

“He would go to events, simply not with me. I might go to events, simply not with him,” Dominique says. “Me and the women took many household holidays, simply with out him. He was house extra, however you will be dwelling in the identical home with anyone and nonetheless be alone.” She continued, “He was all the time an important supplier, however I really feel like I used to be simply youthful, and I didn’t require a complete bunch.” 

Wanting again, Dominique admits that when she met Voshon, she couldn’t probably have recognized what she wished in a relationship. “I gave up my life again then for what I wished at the moment,” she says. She thought she wished a way of consolation and safety, however in the end says she grew, however her marriage didn’t.

In 2017, Dominique filed for divorce. She admits she was frightened. Voshon dealt with loads for her, however now she must fend for herself in methods she by no means did earlier than. “After my divorce, I misplaced my sight,” Dominique says. “My ex was my sight, and I used to be his listening to. He was my protector,” she says. 

Dominique’s pal and castmate Jennifer Williams says she will be able to relate. Williams, who can also be divorced from an NBA participant, refers back to the feelings one experiences with divorce as a “gradual demise.” She tells BET.com, “It’s like your life utterly modifications, and it’s plenty of problems and struggles that associate with it.” 

That’s exactly why Williams thought Dominique’s journey of regrouping after divorce could be a great storyline for Basketball Wives.

“It’s not all the time going to be sunny,” Williams says. “That’s the fact of what you undergo if you undergo a divorce. And to not say it’s the top all be all, however being on a present that entails ladies, that’s our viewers, and I feel different ladies can relate.” She then added, “Sadly although, the expertise doesn’t have any management over what the community chooses for the present.”

When Dominique was first approached about becoming a member of Basketball Wives she declined, however when producers got here again a yr later after her divorce was ultimate, she and her daughters collectively determined that she ought to be a part of the present. Dominique says she knew there was going to be drama as a result of she was Williams’ pal, and a number of the women had been at odds with Williams on the time. However she didn’t suppose that this is able to be her most important storyline. “Once I got here on, I used to be related to Jennifer as a result of I’m a journey or die, and Jennifer is my actual pal,” Dominique says. “She is just not the pal nonetheless that’s going to say don’t speak to somebody.”   

Dominique describes, particularly, her on-camera brawl with Lozada as one thing that was blown out of proportion. “I’ve by no means had any contact along with her after what you guys seen on TV. They performed it out on digicam, we fastened it, and that was it. I noticed her once more in a pair different settings, and we by no means had a fallout, no run out, no phrases, nothing,” she says. “If I lifeless one thing, that’s what it’s.”  

As for Dominique’s future profession, she says she’d love to do one other season of Basketball Wives and actually inform her story, versus simply enjoying a supporting position to the principle forged. “I’m relatable,” Dominique says. “Regardless that I’ve had all of this, I’m nonetheless going to let you know what the true reality is behind it.”

One harsh actuality of divorce that Dominique speaks about candidly is the monetary shift. “The alimony I acquired after my divorce is gone,” Dominique says. “Immediately, I’m in a wrestle making an attempt to help my household and tackle an area that my ex-husband carried.” 

Her three daughters — Tayler and Tyler, 20, and Taeshon, 16 — are all house today, celebrating Tyler’s going off to Jap Michigan College for school. That is one thing Dominique says she has been working towards with all her women, particularly since Dominique herself needed to put her schooling on maintain when she received pregnant with twins at 15. Finally, although, she did end faculty. “I graduated from U of M [The University of Michigan],” Dominique says proudly whereas pointing to her bachelor’s diploma hanging on her kitchen wall. Sitting on a desk immediately behind it’s a white-and-green sheet cake with the phrases, “Good luck at Jap Tyler!” spelled out in inexperienced icing. 

All through her divorce, the “baggage” Dominique’s mom portrayed in her portray grew to become her help system. However Dominique is aware of her future is her standing on her personal two toes. Meaning specializing in her intimate-wear enterprise, Loyal Hosiery, and Basketball Wives to make her financially impartial. And getting ready for an empty nest.

Immediately, although, Dominique’s home is full with family and friends arriving for Tyler’s send-off get together. Voshon drives away from the home, and Dominique waves, however Voshon doesn’t return the pleasant gesture. “That’s why I didn’t need to have the occasion right here, as a result of it makes him mad,” she says. “The surface of this home didn’t seem like this after we had been dwelling collectively. It was like all damaged items, and now I’m placing them again collectively.”