TERRI J. VAUGHN ON HER HOW SHE COPED WITH THE FAILURE OF HER FIRST MARRIAGE & WHY SHE ELOPED ON HER SECOND.

Actress Terri J. Vaughn who is best known for her eccentric portrayal of Lovita Alize Jenkins Robinson on The Steve Harvey Show recently sat down with Essence.com and dished details on the failure of her first marriage and why she chose to elope in Las Vegas last month with her 30-year-old fiance of 15 months Karon Riley, a former NFL player. The couple, who are expecting a baby boy in May (Vaughn has a six-year-old from her first marriage) pulled a Britany Spears/Kevin Federline move by reciting their nuptials while wearing tracksuits. Let's just hope their marriage will never have to endure a tenth of the severe trials and tribulations which plagued the aforementioned former couple's marital union. Peep the excerpts from Vaughn's interview below.

Essence.com: Is it true you are expecting your second child and newly engaged?
Terri J. Vaughn: Yes, I am about to have my second boy and actually my fiance [Karon Riley of the Cleveland Gladiators] is now my husband. We eloped last month (January 19, 2008).

Essence.com: Congrats! Here you are trying to pull the okey-doke on the public. What made you decide to go to Vegas?
T.V.: Actually, it was actually his idea. Maybe two days before we started talking about it he was like, 'So you still want to get married?' I'm like, 'Yeah.' But really I was keeping it all low-key because after my first marriage failed I wasn't ever thinking about doing it again. So he says, 'You want to go this weekend?' and I'm like, 'Are you serious?' and the next day came and he booked a hotel room and we jumped in the car and drove to Vegas. I started to calling people on the road and four of his friends and two of mine met us there. The whole picture of planning your wedding is really for everyone else and not the couple because you have to be considerate of everyone else's feelings. I recommend eloping because it's so genuine and really is just about the couple.

Essence.com: Hey when it's right, it's right. How'd you two meet?
T.V.: We met when I was touring with the play Golddiggers, Men and Money, co-starring Robin Givens, Carl Payne and Tank. He came out to see Tank, who is on the record label that his family owns.

Essence.com: True love happens when you're least expecting it. So how long were you dating before you got engaged and then married?
T.V.: You're right. After nine months of dating we were engaged and then we got married six months after that. But it's truly amazing how you just know something is right.

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Essence.com: Did you have that same feeling with your first husband?
T.V.: With my first husband, I wasn't honest with him or myself for the seven years we were together. I was so busy trying to live up to the picture I had created in my mind of what I wanted "us" to be in the picture that I was presenting. I planned everything to a tee: when we were going to get married, how my wedding would look, when I wanted to buy a house, when I was going to get pregnant because it was my picture and I couldn't draw outside those lines. As long as I kept busy painting that picture I was fine, but the minute I was still, I had to face what was real and that was that I didn't want to be there, but I was too afraid to leave. I've always been a people-pleaser and the thought of being a black woman divorced especially after seeing my mom go through it, I just didn't want to wear that title or the guilty of another breaking up another Black family.

Essence.com: Yet that failed marriage didn't discourage you from taking the leap again?
T.V.: Trust me, I said I was never going to get married again because I had never tried or worked so hard for anything that didn't pan out. I kept asking myself, What else could I have done? My thought was, If I couldn't make this marriage work by doing all of this for [seven] years then I just can't be married. With Karon, it's different because I don't have a picture. We're just know following our hearts and being led by God. Before I got in this business and got married the first time, I remember being care-free and allowing myself to go wherever God was leading me. I was open but then I started trying to create this picture and that's when everything went wrong. Now, I'm back at that place, following my heart and not concerned about what people are going to say about it or about me. and the support and love and your friends of your family I'm not creating the picture.

SOURCE: To read Terri J. Vaughn's entire interview, click HERE