From the outside looking in, it appears that Loni Love doesn’t have a filter when she discusses things on her talk show “The Real.” But in actuality, she censors herself because of her size and complexion.
Love sat down with MadameNoire for an interview that was recently published, and she said that even though her co-hosts Jeannie Mai, Adrienne Houghton and Tamera Mowry-Housley are also women of color, she has to watch what she says.
“Being on a show like ‘The Real,’ I’m the darkest and I’m the biggest girl,” Love explained. “You have to understand, even though they’re women of color, you have to look at the women of color I’m sitting next to.”
“If there’s a certain subject, there’s a certain way that I have to deliver things because if I have this thin Asian chick next to me and I’m barking at her that’s what it’s looks like to America,” she added. “If I have the petite Hispanic girl and I’m yelling at her, my voice is deeper than everyone on the table. That’s just my natural [voice]. We just have a natural deepness.”
Elsewhere during the chat, the 47-year-old said her complexion impacted what lighting has to be used on the show, and in the beginning it was all wrong. Later, however, some adjustments were made, but Love said the improper lighting affected how her words were received.
“Even just with lighting on the show, we didn’t have the proper lighting for dark skinned big women and sometimes you couldn’t even see my face,” she recalled.
“It’s because of that you had to change some things, they take your message a different way, if you don’t look a certain way to them,” Love continued. “I had to try and fix that. It’s gotten a lot better for our show.”
