Basketball Wives LA season 5 is all set to launch July 12th on VH1. Recently I had the opportunity to chat with one of the newest cast members, Mehgan James.
If Mehgan looks familiar, its because she’s not new to this reality show game. Mehgan was featured on season 9 of Bad Girls Club. Just 21 at the time, Mehgan was known for being opinionated, and ready to pop off in a heatbeat, if she felt you stepped out of line.
Since then, Mehgan has developed both personally and professionally. She’s now 24 years old. In our conversation, we discussed growth and maturity, threesomes, her thoughts on castmate Draya Michele, and of course, I asked what basketball player she was involved with.
Check it out:
Jill: So first up, tell me a little bit about, how did you end up on Basketball Wives LA?
Meghan: Jackie and I at one point shared the same publicist. My publicist introduced me to Jackie at one of her events and she was telling me a little bit about the show and she thought that I would be a good fit so she introduced me to the other girls and from there I got cast.
Jill: What were your feelings about reality TV after doing a season of Bad Girls Club? Basketball Wives still involves a group of women, but it’s kind of different, what has been the biggest difference from your time on Bad Girls Club to now Basketball Wives LA?
Meghan: I feel like the biggest difference is probably dealing with the women that are, I guess you could say more established. Bad Girls Club is exactly what it sounds like, a whole bunch of girls who don’t have their lives together, and it was kind of like a breath of fresh air to actually be around women who were entrepreneurs and mothers. They taught me a lot of stuff.
Jill: Ok, so I’m assuming you’re the youngest on this season. Being the youngest, what do you think the biggest takeaway has been for you, being with women who are a little bit further on in life and more focused?
Meghan: I just feel like a lot of the women have been in such horrible situations, like with their husbands and their family lives, and they’ve always found a way to get through it. A lot of the women have kids and cheating husbands and ex-husbands and then groupies. I feel like they are really strong in the way that they deal with their problems and situations. I feel like that is probably the biggest thing I took from my experience, learning to deal with my problems and get past them instead of dwelling on them.
Jill: Part of the criteria for being on the show is that at some point you dated an athlete. Are you attached to an athlete on the show or are you just kind of folded in?
Meghan: No, my own single character, you know how Bambi – from season 3- came in and was Malaysia’s friend, that wasn’t my character at all. I dated Kedrick Brown, he played for the Celtics and the Cavs and the 76’ers, but we don’t date anymore, and they don’t really display him on the show.
Jill: So obviously there’s been a lot in the blogs about your relationship with Draya, did you know her before you joined the cast?
Meghan: I did not know her personally, I think I met her at a club maybe once and we had a few mutual friends but I didn’t know her personally, I just knew a lot of stuff about her.
Jill: A lot of stuff like general stuff, or you have those Six Degrees of Separation connections?
Meghan: Well, a lot of Draya’s life is displayed in the media. She’s on blogs every single day, it’s kind of hard to ignore things that you see and read about people, but I don’t judge her for any of the things I’ve heard about her. I wouldn’t necessarily say we got along on the show but everything, all my reactions towards Draya was through my own personal experience, not through anything that I’ve heard about her.
Jill: You mentioned how the blogs had Draya out there a lot. Lately you’ve been on there, walk me through that. I know you recently cleared up the misconception about you being involved with your sister in a threesome. She actually was a good friend of yours, not related to you by blood. Do you regret sharing that on Bad Girls Club and being open about it?
Meghan: I’m a very open person and I wouldn’t call anything in my life private. I’m very honest and upfront, I own up to things that I’ve done. I don’t really regret sharing that with people because I just feel like it’s 2015 and I like to have fun, I’m young and I’m not really ashamed of anything I’ve done so I guess I can say no.
Jill: Is a threesome something you’d do again under the right circumstances?
Meghan: Under the right circumstances, yeah for sure. I mean next time I need to be more clear instead of saying it was my sister but I mean every girl has a good friend that they’d be like oh that’s my sis, like you know when you have kids and you have a best friend you’ll be like that’s not like so and so, people are just…stupid.
Jill: Ok, so tell me about Fresh Pear.
Meghan: I have an underwear line coming out in a couple of weeks actually, it’s entitled Fresh Pear and it’s a line of organic underwear. All of the underwear is made out of bamboo fabric, and bamboo fabric is good for keeping you warmer in the winter and cooler in the summer and its anti bacterial and it has stuff in the material that fights bacteria and odors and so I felt like that material would be great for underwear.
Jill: What made you decide to pull together an underwear line?
Meghan: I’m a panty collector, I have two or three hundred pair of underwear. I spend a lot of money at Victoria Secret and I just felt like that instead of spending a lot of money in Victoria Secret I could come up with my own brand of underwear and make a profit from that.
Jill: What has been the best part of being on Basketball Wives LA and also what has been the least fun or the worst experience?
Meghan: The best experience I can say is our cast trip, I don’t think I’m able to reveal or ruin it but I guess everyone knew because all the pictures leaked.
Jill: What was your worst experience with the show?
Meghan: The worst experience? I would say the worst experience would be the stress of filming. I’m a total tomboy so whenever I don’t have to dress up and wear makeup and stuff, I’m in pants and sneakers. I had to get up every single day and get my hair and makeup done every single day, put on clothes every single day and that was a struggle for me.
Jill: Last two questions. There was supposedly something subliminal on Instagram between you and Draya dealing with plastic surgery, how do you feel about plastic surgery – it’s so popular and acceptable right now, what are your thoughts?
Meghan: I just feel like if there’s something that your uncomfortable about on your body or whatever and you have the money to fix it, fix it. I’m a pro Botox, pro plastic surgery, pro whatever you want to get fixed. I just feel like it’s a little funny that Draya has anything to say about plastic surgery because her whole face is fake, so I mean people are just hypocrites and I just feel like whatever make you happy you should do it.
Jill: Lastly, if there is one thing, one misconception you could correct about how people feel about you, what do you want them to learn about you through your experience with reality TV?
Meghan: I feel like people think that I’m a bully or a mean person because on previous shows I’ve gotten into a lot of physical altercations, but no one ever sees the back end of to why stuff happens and hopefully on this show, like they show more of a polished Meghan, like my business woman side and I hope people see me as an adult instead of as a little girl.
Looking for Mehgan, check out her Instagram @XOXOMehg
If you never watched Bad Girls Club, here’s what you missed from Mehgan.
photos via Mehgan James.
