Brandy, 47, is speaking out for the first time about a rumored romance with Boyz II Men vocalist Wanya Morris. In her newly unveiled memoir Phases, the “I Wanna Be Down” singer confirms that the long-standing chatter from the 1990s was true. Yet the woman she once believed to be a genuine love connection now presents itself differently, writing that she was “too young to realize she was being used,” according to an excerpt obtained by Entertainment Weekly.
The Grammy-winning R&B artist recalls meeting Morris in 1995 while opening for Boyz II Men on their II World Tour. At the time, Brandy was 16, fresh off the release of her debut album, while Morris was 22.
In her memoir Phases, Brandy claimed that Wanya Morris was her mentor before things turned romantic.
Love MadameNoire? Get more! Join the MadameNoire Newsletter
We care about your data. See our privacy policy.
She explains that their relationship began in a professional setting, with Morris stepping into a “mentor” capacity. Over time, however, their bond deepened. He began calling and checking in frequently, offering guidance as both an “anchor” and a trusted confidant. The dynamic grew stronger during the tour, especially after filming the video for “Brokenhearted,” when she sensed an unspoken energy taking shape between them.
“What had started as admiration had evolved into something else,” Brandy writes, per Entertainment Weekly. “It seems to me that he exploited my admiration, transformed my friendship into dependence, my respect into desire. I felt drawn into a current I could not steer.”
She continues:
“We moved around each other like opposing magnets — as if deliberately trying to stay apart even as we kept spiraling toward one another. The attraction was understated yet undeniable. It lived in the silences between conversations, and it lingered in the charged air surrounding us.”
She felt scared to tell family or close friends about the relationship, according to the singer’s excerpt in Phases.
As their relationship intensified, Brandy states it moved quickly, leaving her burdened with guilt over keeping it from her family and the public.
“But it wasn’t only about upsetting — or disappointing — my parents,” she writes, according to an excerpt obtained by PEOPLE. “Wanya and I understood, with crystal clarity, that public knowledge of our relationship would spark scandal, potentially endangering everything we had built, so we chose a crafted fantasy: we would pretend to be patient and claim we were waiting until my eighteenth birthday before pursuing any romance.”
Confusion grew for the singer, who won her first Grammy in 1999, when Morris, now 52, allegedly referred to her as his girlfriend only in private.
“‘My girlfriend is sixteen.’ I don’t recall when he first uttered it. But those words began to slip from his lips whenever we were alone,” she writes of Morris, per EW. “I couldn’t tell if this refrain was to ease his own conscience or to calm the questions in my eyes. Perhaps it was his method of clinging to a boundary, even as he quietly stepped beyond it. Or perhaps it was simply a reminder to himself, a whisper to preserve the illicit nature of our bond. Regardless, I believed we were madly in love — or at least a version of love I thought existed at sixteen. A grown man’s idea of love, arranged to serve his needs.”
She also reflected on her first sexual encounter with Wanya Morris.
Elsewhere in Phases, Brandy recalls their initial sexual experience, saying it lacked the extraordinary quality she had imagined, because it wasn’t really about her. She notes that it was shaped by “the influence of a man who seemed to know exactly how to make me question what I believed and where my boundaries lay.”
“And I lingered in this peculiar balance,” she continues. “I was navigating that period under public scrutiny, every action examined by people who didn’t know my heart. Part of me wanted to hold onto some sense of normalcy, but I also knew that what was happening between us was wrong. And yet I believed, ‘This is special. This is real. People just can’t understand.’”
Looking back, she characterizes the sexual dynamic as Morris “getting what he wanted from someone too young to realize she was being used.” She adds that she was “too naïve to understand that deep down he didn’t view me as special. I think he saw me as someone conquerable, a boundary that could be negotiated away. I was in over my head.”
Here’s what Wanya Morris had to say about his relationship with Brandy.
In 2021, Morris discussed his relationship with Brandy during a livestream, explaining that she began as a friend and “protégé,” noting that she had long been a fan of his work early in her career. He said they started collaborating after her ascent on Moesha, and that after substantial time together they began to “fall in love.” He also asserted that they didn’t begin dating until “she reached adulthood.”
“As time went on, we simply grew apart,” he added. “Yes, breaking up was painful… she grew out of me and I outgrew her. I might have moved on from her a bit sooner. But it’s a relationship, you’re young and you make choices.”
Brandy’s story is far too familiar.
Unfortunately, Brandy’s account is not the first to reveal grooming within the music industry. Her narrative echoes a disturbing pattern that is all too common: young, ambitious performers stepping into the spotlight without protective support networks to help them navigate dangerous situations, leaving them to face shame, guilt, and silence. Where were the mentors and elders to shield her?
In February, singer Reshona Landfair, now 41, spoke out about this issue and the trauma she says she endured at the hands of disgraced R&B icon R. Kelly. As a teenager, Landfair was the minor identified in court documents as “Jane Doe” in the Grammy-winning artist’s sex-trafficking and child-pornography case due to a widely circulated sex tape she filmed with him at 14. She revisits the humiliation and enduring damage in her memoir, Who’s Watching Shorty: Reclaiming Myself from the Shame of R. Kelly’s Abuse.
According to Fox 32 Chicago, Landfair met R. Kelly at 13 through her aunt, singer Sparkle, who at the time was signed to his label. As an aspiring vocalist, she began spending time in the studio with the Chicago-born star. What started as mentorship, she alleges, soon devolved into grooming. Landfair told Fox 32 Chicago that when she tried to come forward, she lacked support.
Speaking to the New York Post on Feb. 20, Landfair recalled getting “the chills” when she learned that the private sex tape she had made with the singer had been leaked and was being copied and sold on street corners nationwide—the disturbing clip in which she appears being urinated on by the disgraced star.
“There wasn’t a professional setting where that situation wouldn’t come up — whether I was dating or in a relationship,” Landfair said. “It has affected me in many areas that I don’t even discuss.”
In her memoir, the Chicago native details the trauma she says she endured — first through R. Kelly’s actions, and later through what she describes as failings within the legal system. Landfair writes that she never watched the tape herself until she testified against R. Kelly during his 2022 racketeering and sex-crimes trial. As a minor during the 2008 case, she says she was not present in court and later learned that the footage had been viewed by jurors and spectators alike, with her full name unredacted in court documents.
“I could not know that jurors silently gasped or snickered while a gallery full of spectators did the same as they watched a child-pornography video for a trial about child pornography,” she writes in Who’s Watching Shorty: Reclaiming Myself from the Shame of R. Kelly’s Abuse. “It’s painful to think about, even today.”
