Lauryn Hill’s personal life has been the subject of many headlines over the past week after Rohan claimed in an interview with The Voice that he wanted to marry Lauryn Hill but she wasn’t ready at the time. ‘I want to be in a relationship where we’re both confident about what we have; I love you and you love me too. But [marriage] wasn’t what she wanted,’ he was quoted as saying.
But it isn’t just Rohan that’s speaking out on his personal relationship with Lauryn Hill. Her former Fugee bandmate Wyclef has a few things to say as well. Last week, after attending the Boy Meet Girl USA Runway show, I came across a copy of Wyclef’s new book, ‘Purpose’ in my gift bag and I couldn’t help but flip through the pages to see what kind of tea he was spilling about the Fugees group and why they ultimately broke up.
Inside, he detailed how the group first came together, as well as his love affair with Lauryn Hill which influenced the remake of the Roberto Flack record, ‘Killing Me Softly’ and most of Lauryn’s debut album, ‘The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill’. He also claims that Lauryn led him to believe that her first son Zion was his baby up until the day the child was born and he blames the damper on her career on her relationship with Rohan Marley.
Read a few key highlights below:
On the pivotal moment in their relationship
Our concert for Haiti was a pivotal moment for the Fugees internally, too. Afterward, nothing was the same, because it captured the pivotal event that changed everything between Lauryn and me. Anyone who has seen the footage might notice that Lauryn Hill was pregnant at that time. While we played those songs I believed that her child was mine. [...]
For the next nine months, I assumed her child was mine. It was easy to do as we rode the wave of success. In my mind, it was complicated and dangerous, but it was beautiful, too: If Lauryn and I had a child together, it was, to me, a product of our music and everything we’d worked to achieve. It made sense to my heart, as much as I knew it was wrong in my mind. If that’s what it came down to, I knew I would be honest with Claudinette and hope I didn’t lose her, just the way I knew I would do right by our child and so would Lauryn. I was proud of it when we performed in Haiti, because Lauryn was visibly pregnant. So to me, we were playing a concert for my people with our child growing inside of her.
On learning the truth
When Lauryn gave birth, I learned the truth: the child wasn’t mine. It was Rohan Marley’s. And in that moment something died between us. I was married and Lauryn and I were having an affair, but she had led me to believe that the baby was mine, and I couldn’t forgive that. [..] She could no longer be my muse. Our love spell was broken through her creation.
On the aftermath [Wyclef went on to write and release the 'Carnival' album which sold 5 million worldwide]
Meanwhile, Lauryn was writing The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, which she recorded for the most part in Jamaica. She was there with Rohan, with whom she went on to have four more kids, even though he was still married to someone else. I can’t speak for her, but I don’t think Lauryn knew about this until she was already pregnant. Rohan had gotten married years before, had two children with that girl and when things didn’t work out, never divorced. He and Lauryn kept having children and just continued on unmarried because legally he couldn’t marry her.
She might have been with him in Jamaica at the time, but musically and lyrically she was still with me. Her whole album was about her trying to make sense of our relationship, and when I listen to Miseducation, it’s like reading a diary of our personal history.
On Lauryn leaving music behind
A lot of people blame me for what has become of Lauryn since then, and the fact that she’s not out and about in the music industry. You have to understand that she and I had a very complicated relationship, and I’ll take the blame for my side of the pain and confusion. No doubt, my marriage to Claudinette hurt her, but the fact that she more or less left music behind can’t be explained away that simply. Her relationship with Rohan Marley changed her life, as did becoming a mother five times over. I think she’s had a hard time in her relationship with Rohan and faced her challenges raising all of those children. It just make me sad that Lauryn hasn’t been out there making music, because she’s got a real gift and I wish she would share it with the world.
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