The youngest member of “The Basketball Wives” isn’t playing; she’s standing up for herself.
Royce Reed has been in the spotlight nearly her entire life. Born and raised in Orlando loving all things sports, she is a former gymnast,
competitive cheerleader, and dancer for professional basketball teams in both Miami and Orlando. She is the founder/owner of her own
burlesque dance company, Fantashique, which travels all over Florida. The only thing more colorful than her dance moves is her personality. She is a firecracker, a strong-minded, driven woman who is no stranger to confrontation. While she’s a sweetheart most of the time, Royce can turn it on in a hot second and rarely bites her tongue. In the future, she looks forward to pursuing an acting career. This season, she continues to try to debunk the negative stereotype that the wives have against team dancers, and continues her search for love
HHW: How did your fans feel about you speaking up for yourself on the show these days?
Royce: They said it was about time. When I first met these ladies, I knew Shaunie but I didn’t know these other people at all and I didn’t feel it was my place to jump in and out of conversations and state my opinions.
How did you feel about the first episode of Season 3? It was pretty wild.
I’m used to it and I didn’t expect anything positive to be said by some of them. Misery loves company and they live off of negativity. I don’t understand it. But I have never really gotten along with a lot of females. For me, this is something I have dealt with since college. I was the girl that was closer to the guys than the females because I was an athlete. My friends know that I have never been the
type of girl that would get dressed up. Obviously, when I go out I do, but why would I get dressed up just to be outside? And there are
comments about my clothes and my hair, 99 percent of the people at the malls are dressed like me, so I’m not going to pretend to be
something I’m not. I don’t know if they expected me to look like I am on a sitcom, ‘cause that’s not real to me. Make-up is not that important to men. I know that but they don’t know that. And the hatred that is thrown around, it is so disheartening and I thought we had gotten past that point and that the show was taking a different direction but obviously it hasn’t. Will I ever friends with Evelyn? No. Will I ever be friends with Jen and Shaunie? No. But will we learn how to co-exist in the same room? Hopefully, but I don’t relate to them and their lifestyle. It’s not because I don’t have the money because obviously everybody knows that I do, but I prefer to spend it on more important things like a house or a cars opposed to clothing or getting my nails done, but that’s just me.
What about the T-shirts Evelyn is making?
No grown woman should be going around wearing a T-shirt with curse words on it. There’s nothing attractive about it. You have young
ladies watching the show, what are you giving off, what are you trying to portray? It makes you look immature and uneducated.
What else are you doing with your life?
I’m pursuing my acting career. I am in a play called “Cheaters” and my book is out and is selling well on line.
For more of our exclusive interviews, be sure to pick up the latest issue of Hip-Hop Weekly on newsstands now.
Leave a Reply