Julia Moore is a TV writer-reporter at PEOPLE. A graduate of Northwestern University, she has been working at PEOPLE since 2022.
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Jeannie Mai is not looking to find a new man — but that doesn’t mean she’s not having a little fun.
The 46-year-old stopped by Sherri on Monday, March 24 and got real about her dating life — or, lack thereof, with host Sherri Shepherd. Mai revealed she’s enjoying “spending time by [her]self” these days after years of prioritizing men.
“Can we just bring back spending time by yourself? Journaling, being at home in your grandma panties and just not caring?” Mai suggested.
“Honestly, I think my whole life we’ve kind of, as women, have been prepared to [think about]: how are you going to talk to your new boyfriend? How are you going to get that first kiss? Who are you gonna marry? Who are you gonna date when you get divorced? How are you gonna get back out in these streets? I don’t wanna be in the streets. The streets don’t want me. I wanna be by myself.”
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Mai, who finalized her divorce from rapper Jeezy in June continued, “I am paid for fully. I am under warranty. I can eat my own french fries at that table. I don’t have to share with anybody. I can go to bed when I want to. I can sit there and scroll aimlessly as long as I need. And I love that right now.”
Where her earlier decades were spent “doing all the research” and “figuring out life,” Mai said that now, “I know exactly what not to do.”
Shepherd, 57, encouraged her to still take care of the “little tingle” she might be feeling every once in a while, though, to which Mai said, “Oh, I know about the tingle.”
“You can try to do a lot of things by yourself. Journaling ain’t gonna get rid of the tingle,” Shepherd told her.
“That’s right,” Mai agreed, before quipping cheekily, “But wait… Sherri, we didn’t say that we can’t have friends. We can have friends.”
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Mai shares her 3-year-old daughter Monaco with her ex-husband, so being a single mom has also been part of why she’s stayed single since Jeezy filed for divorce in September 2023.
She told PEOPLE in January that she’s “been busy dating myself” since her marriage ended as she said she was not looking for a new relationship in the new year.
“I’ve just been taking myself out,” she said. “I’ve been spending a lot of money on myself.”
