Iyanla Vanzant is speaking out about her confrontational sit-down interview with Chris Brown’s former girlfriend, Karrueche Tran.
In an appearance Wednesday on The Breakfast Club, Vanzant accused Tran’s management team of trying to use her show to boost the former celebrity stylist’s career.
“I don’t like to call people out. But they came to us thinking that to be on my show was going to push her to the next level,” Vanzant said. “When they got there, [they] realized that I don’t play. I don’t do publicity and marketing.”
Tran, a former personal shopper and celebrity stylist, appeared on Vanzant’s popular Oprah Winfrey Network series Fix My Life back in 2015.
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The interview showed a tearful Tran describing the ups and downs of dating Brown for five years. But after it aired, Tran’s manager said she was “bullied” by Vanzant.
Tran, who now co-stars on the TNT series Claws, sat down for an interview with radio personality Angie Martinez in 2017, and said she regretted speaking with Vanzant.
Tran’s manager Jacob York also claimed during the interview with Martinez, that they originally agreed to appear on OWN, not Fix My Life.
“OWN reached out on a premise that they wanted to interview her, then they tried to backdoor this Iyanla [interview],” York said.
Although, he admitted the Fix My Life broadcast ultimately had a “very good effect” on the way Tran’s fans perceived her.
On Wednesday, Vanzant countered York’s claims that Tran was “bullied” and that they didn’t know the interview would air on Fix My Life.
“Look. They came to us.” Vanzant said. “I didn’t come to them. There’s no locks. There’s no gates. We were in her house. She didn’t put me out.”
Vanzant then suggested that if Tran and York were bothered by the tone of the interview, they should have asked her to leave.
“When I started asking her some hard questions, he [York] wanted to pull, pull it out,” she said.
“Then he said, ‘you’re putting words in her mouth.’ I said, ‘If she don’t say it, I can’t play it.'”
Vanzant said at that point, York briefly stopped the interview.
“He pulled her out of the room and said he didn’t want these questions, and I left,” she explained. “They had to talk me back [in]. That’s the truth.”
Vanzant then suggested that Tran’s management team wasn’t looking out for her best interest.
“I don’t have any issues with Karrueche. I don’t think at that time her management was in her best corner. But look where she is now. So, all things are working for our good.”
You can watch The Breakfast Club interview below. Vanzant discusses Tran at the 26:15 mark.
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