“Love and Hip Hop: New York” star Joe Budden is catching flak from folks who accuse him of being insensitive to his partner Cyn Santana after she confessed to suffering from mental illness.
During season 9 of “LHHNY,” Budden and Santana have been battling a series of relationship woes, including a dry sex life and neglecting each other’s needs. Santana stressed to her fiancé that she’s been battling depression since giving birth to their son Lexington in 2017. She claimed that Budden is at work all day while she’s at home taking care of the baby.
photo courtesy: VH1 screenshot/ Joe Budden (L) and Cyn Santana (R)
Santana said not only does she feel her fiancé is neglecting her sexual and emotional needs in their relationship, but she feels her battle with depression is beginning to spiral out of control.
“My mental health is off,” Santana tells Budden during episode 6. “Regardless whether I’m depressed or not Joey, you are still being neglectful. … I’m still not happy with you or how we are in our relationship.”
Budden responded to Santana by saying her mental wellness comes first. He told her that he was “perfectly fine with breaking up” in order for her to heal herself mentally. He then tells her he has “to go.”
The next scene shows Santana breaking down into tears and grabbing their son from his crib while Budden exits their home.
LHHNY viewers slammed the rapper for his “nonchalant” attitude towards Santana’s mental illness revelation and felt his reaction was completely insensitive to her feelings.
“Instead of walking away, the mature thing would have been to understand why she’s feeling this way. You see her down already and you continued to show no compassion and basically said ‘f–k you’. This pissed me off so much 😔 . He’s such a dick at times.”
“Wooooow that’s cold man. Words hurt even if you don’t mean it, it’s still how you execute them and he did it at a awful wrong time. Smmfh.”
“Joe can be such a asshole at times. I get he’s hurt but he could of been more understanding and not so insensitive and nonchalant to Cyn. Damn.”
One fan jumped to Budden’s defense by saying he only had Santana’s best interest at heart.
“He was saying if they have to break up for her to be happy and not depressed he is okay with it. Joe was hurt too guys. He wasn’t being a dick on purpose he meant Cyn well.”
Budden and Santana appear to have worked through their issues in the months since the episode was taped, as they got engaged on Dec. 19 in New York City during his podcast tour. No other details have been released on their upcoming wedding.
