Deb Antney Reveals Details About The Baby She Didn't Know Her Son Had
Last season on Love & Hip Hop Atlanta, Waka Flocka Flame and the rest of his family were dealt a crushing blow when Waka's brother, KayO Redd, took his own life at the end of 2013. Though the death took a toll on the family, the family has one reason to celebrate. They recently learned that KayO fathered a daughter named Ittila who was born not long after his death. After speaking with Waka's and KayO's mother, Deb Antney, we discovered exactly what happened and how she has become a blessing in disguise for the family.
Has the discovery of KayO's daughter proved to be a way to keep his memory alive?
It is like a little reminder a little bit. At first it was very hard but now it's so good. Like she'll be with me today, and on the weekends I get her. We know that if he knew anything --– which he did kind of know a little bit --- but he didn't believe that the baby was his because of an incident that happened with her, but she was very honest. It was so crazy. When she was born I didn't believe it and then when I seen when she got up and my son started putting pictures of them two together, we were bugging out. We were like "Oh my God!" We were looking for that red carrot top, that hair. We were looking for the color of her hair and it wasn't there.
How old is she?
She's one. She was born right after my son died. May 2 is her birthday. Did you see her? She's beautiful. She looks like her father's side really, a lot of her father's side. Then her mom is Mexican and on that side there's a lot of Caucasian too. So she has a mixture, but then she looks like me also, if you really see her. She does the twist of the faces like me, yo she got attitude galore! Attitude galore. But I love her and I think it's something that we all needed. It's something Waka needed because Waka never went through anything about this death so he's real short with a lot of stuff now but with Ittila he's going crazy.
A photo posted by Twitter: @debrantney (@debra4mizay) on
Why did you decide to come back to Love & Hip Hop even though Waka and Tammy did not?
I never left. I never left. Let me explain something, I've been with Love & Hip Hop since it started. Since the first time Mona called me to come on and do it. That's my show. So I'm not abandoning my show for nobody and nothing. It's my show. [Laughs] At the end of the day, they have to do what they do. They made their own business decisions and that's on them. At the end of the day, I'm not leaving. That's my show, I'm not going anywhere. This is my city, that's just it, I'm there and I'm not going anywhere.
How are Waka and Tammy doing these days?
They're good, they're good. They finally got into a house. It was a lot of stressful things going on. Tammy didn't want to be in the house that Waka had, and I understand that. He had all them women and everything else went on in that house. She needed her own house and finally they have their house. They were actually in a hotel for the longest time and that was by choice. Once they left the townhouse, then they went into the hotel because she refused to go into the house but they're good.
Do you think that being on the show hurt or helped Waka's career?
I think that the one thing that it got to do is people got to see that he's a real individual. He liked it, he liked the idea of that. It did open up door. Who it helped was Tammy. Waka has a huge following already, but at the end of the day people grew to love him even more because they got to see he's a real person and not a vicious animal that people make us all out to be. Even for me too, because I'm very stern, because I'm a female in a male dominated industry, I'm beat on more than I'm loved on. The rumors, and the stories, and the lies that go out. There's not enough time in the day for you to sit here and try to protect who you are and now people get to visually see that you are a loving person, you do care about people. All of these things are just there. I think that that s--- was really good for him as far as relationship-wise. I really wish [audiences] would have gotten to see more, I wish we would have had the wedding and they didn't elope. He's going through so much pain, not that he don't love Tammy --- he loves her --- but he was going through so much pain. Death doesn't sit good with him and it doesn't sit good with me. I just learned how to become numb and deal with it.