Brandy wrote in her new memoir, Phases, that her first relationship was with Boyz II Men singer Wanyá Morris when she was 16.

When did Bandy and Wanyá Morris’ alleged relationship begin?

Brandy wrote that the pair’s relationship began in the 1990s, when Brandy was 16, and Morris was in his early 20s. They collaborated on the Grammy-winning singer-songwriter and actor’s hit single “Brokenhearted” from her self-titled album in 1994. She wrote that it once started out as a friendship, which quickly turned into romance.

Brandy wrote that Morris started calling and checking on her regularly, becoming a “mentor” and providing advice as an “anchor” and a “confidant,” to the rising star. After Brandy opened for the group on its world tour, Brandy wrote that the two grew closer, according to People and Entertainment Weekly.

“What had begun as admiration had transformed into something else,” Brandy wrote, per Entertainment Weekly. “It seems to me that he weaponized my admiration, shaped my friendship into dependence, my respect into desire. I felt swept up in a current I couldn’t control.”

Brandy wrote that she and Morris had officially established their relationship, but, according to her, it also presented many challenges, especially given their age gap and her status as a young teen.

“I was in over my head. Sneaking around with Wanya and lying to my parents had become a constant. They barely liked the idea of me dating at all, and telling them about us was out of question,” Brandy, now 47, wrote, according to People.

She continued, “But it wasn’t just about upsetting — or disappointing — my parents,” she wrote. “Wanya and I understood, with diamond-cut clarity that public knowledge of our relationship would ignite scandal, potentially threatening everything we’d both worked for, so he and I opted for elaborate fiction: we would pretend patience and claim we were waiting until my eighteenth birthday before pursuing any romantic connection.”

Brandy discussed her alleged sexual encounter with Morris

The Moesha star also wrote that Morris would emphasize her age at almost every moment they were together. At the time, she wrote, she couldn’t understand why he would say that, but she explained all the possibilities and what it could have meant.

“‘My girlfriend is sixteen.’ I don’t remember when he first said it. But those four words started rolling off his tongue whenever we were alone,” she wrote, according to EW. “I couldn’t tell if this refrain was meant to soothe his own conscience or temper the questions shimmering in my gaze. Perhaps it was his way of tethering himself to a boundary, even as he quietly edged past it. Or maybe it was simply a reminder to himself, a whisper to keep the illicit nature of our connection in view. Regardless, I was under the impression that we were madly in love — or at least what I believed love to be at sixteen. A grown man’s version of love, designed to serve his needs.”

Brandy also wrote that she lost her virginity to Morris. Like many young girls, she envisioned what that special moment would be like, but it was nothing like what she imagined. She wrote that it “lacked the specialness I had painted in my mind, because it wasn’t about me at all.” What she sees as the usual rites of passage in adolescence were tainted by “the influence of a man who seemed to know exactly how to make me question my own beliefs and boundaries,” Brandy wrote, per EW.

“And I hung in this strange balance. I was navigating that time in full view of the world, every move scrutinized, every choice dissected by people who didn’t know my heart,” she wrote. “Part of me wanted to retain some semblance of ‘normalcy,’ but also I knew full well that what was happening between me and him was wrong. And yet, my attitude was, ‘This was special. This was real. People just can’t understand,'” she added.

Brandy discussed being “too naive” after the alleged sexual encounter and believing that Morris saw her as “conquerable” to get what he wanted. Although she initially wanted to wait until marriage, the “I Wanna Be Down” singer thought sex would make them closer and that she was ready for a real relationship, she wrote. However, she continued, “The truth is I felt like I had no choice. I felt like saying no meant losing him.”

‘I was a child. And he was an adult’

As their alleged relationship progressed, Brandy wrote Morris became overly critical of her and tried to control her. He had constant infidelities, which ultimately led to the end of their relationship, she wrote.

Over the years, Morris had denied the longstanding rumors that they were dating, but Brandy alleged that she endured a lot in their relationship and realized it wasn’t true love.

“I was sixteen years old, dealing with the infidelity of a grown man who I believe had pursued me, took my innocence, and was now revealing he’d not been faithful. I may have been young, but I was wise enough to know I had been played. And that wasn’t love,” she wrote.

She says they broke up after he cheated, stating that Morris has described their relationship as “the young ingénue having a schoolgirl crush and getting her heart broken,” but she now says, “I believe he took advantage.”

This is the first time Brandy has opened up about her and Morris’ alleged relationship because she decided she did not want to remain silent about it.

“The shame ends here. The silence ends here,” she wrote of coming to terms with the feeling that she was manipulated into and throughout the alleged relationship. “I was not a fast girl with a crush. I was not a dramatic teenager who couldn’t handle rejection. I was not an unstable obsessive fan. I was a child. And he was an adult. And it’s time the world understood the difference,” she wrote, according to People.

Wanyá Morris

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