Exclusive Interview with Ione Rucker #lovethysister

The Adventures of
IONE RUCKER
Love Thy Sister... part 2
By Belinda Trotter James

We spoke with all three sister from WE TV’s reality show, “Love Thy Sister” in part one of a four part interview last week.  This week it’s all about IONE.  Ione is the younger sister of the three on the show.  She is a fun loving, open-minded mother of three small children, Kathryn, AJ and Rucker with her ex-husband, Antawn Jamison, ex-NBA player.  No questions were off limit to me however, I had to consider that they were respected mothers and business women in their communities.  Well, to my surprise I was looking at E!’s television series called The Soup with host, Joel McHale which gives a recap of events or funny clips of the week’s television shows.  One of the clips was Ms. Ione in the bathroom using a vibrator and her sister walked in on her!!!  Wow! The huge walk-in shower had no doors.  The camera guy saw everything and The Soup TV show loved it.  Ione had some ‘explaining’ to do…

We all had a good laugh and Ione explained, “Girl you know I was recently divorced and I haven't had sex in over two years. I have three small children and I'm very involved with them.  We are always busy and I hadn't gotten back into the dating scene yet so I did the safe and responsible thing to do to release myself when I need to in the privacy of my own bedroom, my own shower, my own home; it's very responsible of me. I don’t date a lot and I felt the need to be focused on my children because it was a difficult time for me and my children.  So, I just use a vibrator and I feel it's very liberating for women. Men have been masturbating for years and its okay, but when a woman does it, that’s the clip you see on The Soup. That's fine and it's all good because I signed up for this. I thought it would be very empowering to show women that you don’t always need a man. I didn't need a man at the time so I used a sex toy. My parents’ generation thinks it’s just so out of this world crazy, but our younger generation have been doing it for years. So I just think it's something that I'm okay with. I'm not ashamed that I used a vibrator and I think it's a very responsible thing to do as a mother with small children to release my stress and my energy when I need to. We all laughed and said, ‘Okay, we got it’. Ione went on to say, “When they saw me doing that, I felt like we are on a women's network, it's women's entertainment and I felt like it was empowering for me to show that on TV.”

Ruby added, “I think a lot of times women think that we just have to have a man and a lot of it is because of loneliness and our sex drive. I think like Ione said it's empowering to show women that you can do that on your own too and you don't need a man to do that with and you can release yourself by yourself.” Ellen chimed in to say, “When you have young kids you don't want all types of men in and out of your home either and that was very responsible of Ione to show that she's not going to have all types of men around her children.”

Well, we know how Ione takes care of herself physically, but how does she deal mentally with being without her husband to help run a household with three small children and try to put some type of normalcy in her own social life as a young eligible woman? Ione says, "It was very hard at first mentally, but once again I leaned a lot on my family. I am so thankful and blessed I have my sisters around me as my support system. Ellen lives right in the same neighborhood, Ruby lives up the street and I just leaned on my family during that time.  And of course my faith in God; I just prayed and I got through it. It was very hard; I felt like I was in a state of depression for probably a year because I had three small kids; my baby was under two years old so it was very hard.  I’m sure a lot of people who can relate that have been through divorce known that life goes on after a divorce and you can find your groove again and life can be fulfilling after a divorce.” 

“It was just hard for me to start dating again and bringing people around my children because my ex-husband is a great father and I don't really like saying that I'm a single mother because my ex-husband is very much a part of my kids life which I am really grateful for.   A huge shout out for that because some men just walk away from their wife and their children; he never did that. He has always been a huge part of my kids’ life and even my nieces and nephews. He baby sits all my nieces and nephews so as a black man I just want to give him a shout out for that.  He could have stepped away from this entire family, but he never did."   Her sisters also agreed and gave Antawn Jamison a big shout out along with lots of love. “He is still uncle Antawn to all the kids”, says Ruby.

It's wonderful to find your knight in shining armor however, when it starts to get a little rusty, you have to start all over to find another knight. It can be a little scary and intimidating to start dating again.  On the next few episodes of Love Thy Sister you will see Ione tackle the dating scene once again. "You will see me dating all types of men; younger men and older men", begins Ione.  “I was like…hmmm… you know what… I got married young in my early 20s. I'm just going to go out to see what's out there. After I stopped being depressed, I started to date and date and date. I started dating all types of men again.”  Ellen told Ione not to give everything away so Ione said, “Just tune in and see what happens.”  As we see Ione start to get her confidence back to go on a quest to find love again, will there be room in her heart to marry again? Ione replies, "You know possibly, but right now my main focus is to raise my children.  My number one focus is to raise healthy, happy, successful children. I’m not focused on getting married again at this point in my life.”

Don’t feel sorry for Ione.  She has a lot to keep her busy in this chapter of her life.  One of the ways she gives back to the community is by making education a priority in the lives of children.  She started The Rucker Education Fund which gives out scholarships.  “The Rucker Education Fund is something we started about three years ago,” explains Ione.  Both of our grandparents were educators in Lancaster South Carolina for many years.  Our grandfather was the superintendent for all the black schools in Lancaster and a school was named after him, the A R Rucker Middle School in our hometown of Lancaster.  Since I have the education background, I felt the need to honor them. I majored in elementary education at Spellman College and went on to Converse College to get my Masters in elementary education. I felt that there was a need for me to do it because I have that background. We give out scholarships to deserving students from Lancaster, South Carolina who went through A R Rucker Middle School. We gave out our first two scholarships last year and it's just a great cause to give back to the community of Lancaster. We have an annual fundraiser fashion show every year.  The fundraiser has really been huge here in Charlotte and we just hope that it only grows to become something even bigger so that we can help more kids out of Lancaster."

Check out Ione on Twitter to tell her what you thought of her dates.  The next sister I will chat with is Ellen Rucker to see how the next chapter in her life is shaping up and if Ruby is correct in her observation that Ellen’s boyfriend, Bakari is simply not into her enough to put a ring on it.  Stay tuned and watch the show on Thursdays. Visit the sister’s website at http://www.TheRuckerSisters.com

MAKE SURE TO READ THE RUCKER SISTERS INTERVIEW feat Ruby, Ellen & Ione
http://whosthatladyinc.blogspot.com/2015/01/exclusive-interview-with-ruckers.html

 
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