Reality Star Michel’le, Tells How Dr Dre Was Physically Abusive

Sitting down with The Breakfast Club yesterday, reality star and singer, Michel’le who dated Dr Dre from 1990- 1996 talked about Dre’s alleged abusive episodes and the physical injuries she suffered. She said being with the rap mogul left her with a cracked rib and “amazing” scars from all the times he would beat on her with a closed fist. She also said she sustained five black eyes during her time with him and that the first time he hit her, he cried and promised to never punch her in that eye again. Really? “In that eye again”. Catch the highlights:

On why she never married Dr. Dre:

We were engaged but we never got married because he wasn’t ready. I told him, ‘When you stop being Dr. Dre and be Andre then [we’ll get married]. I was serious if I was ever gonna get married. We were together five years before we had a child [Marcel].

On why they broke up:

Waiting him out, girl after girl, fighting. I’m 27. I finally put my fist down and said, ‘I just can’t do it.’ That was one thing, but it was a lot. You get tired!

On Dre beating her up:
I tried [fist fighting] but I was losing. I had five black eyes, I have a cracked rib, I have scars that are just amazing. It was normal. Everybody that knew, it was the norm. No [I never called the police]. He used his fist, closed fist.

He hasn’t apologized till this day and it wouldn’t do any good because it’s the past. We’re past that.

But I do remember when he first hit me. When he first gave me my very first black eye, we laid in the bed and cried. He was crying and I was crying ’cause I was in shock [and] hurt and in pain. I don’t know why he was crying, but he said, ‘I’m really sorry.’ I think that’s the only time he ever said he was sorry. And he said ‘I’ll never hit you in that eye again, okay?’ And I was like, ‘Yeah, okay.’ And we fell asleep.

On using humor as a coping mechanism:

Years later, I was talking to my friend and I joked, ‘He said he would never hit me in this [points to right eye] eye ever again so
ht eye] eye ever again so he started hitting me in that one [points to left
eye]. You start humoring to get through the pain. So it became–Ike & Tina Turner. Jokes. It was normal.

Why she stayed for as long as she did:

I think it was a multitude of things [including money and good sex] because when you’ve been with somebody so long, you’ve become co-dependent upon them and your self-esteem is what they’re giving you now.

On finally leaving Dre:

I went away and I was gone for like two and a half months. I came back and they said Dr. Dre’s engaged. I had already had it out with this girl [Dr. Dre’s now
wife Nicole Young] before I left. He was sleeping with her. She knew she wanted what she wanted — hands down.

She was the first one who came into his life that I went, ‘Oh God!’ She saw the big house, she was looking at our things and going ‘Ooooh!’ She knew what money was while the other girls was just happy to be sleeping with him to be like, ‘You gon’ do me a record?’ But [Nicole Young] came straight for the check. I saw that and said, ‘Listen, if he can’t see it, I’m not staying around to help him out.’
Michel’le was also in a relationship with Suge Knight for eight years and revealed that he also hit her once, backhanding her jaw out of alignment.

One of the craziest things he ever did was when he tried to hit me. He only tried one time. And he was so strong that he open hand slapped me and threw my whole jaw–I had to go to the emergency. He back hand slapped [my jaw out of
line] and it wouldn’t go back [in place]. So I had to finally call him and say, ‘You’re gonna have to come take me to the emergency.’ It was either that or the police was gonna have to take me.

So he got there quick and was on time. Even when I got to the hospital and they asked what happened, I said I got hit by a football at 2:00am. But [the doctor] knew it wasn’t true. Once they drugged me to sedate me, she said, ‘I know you didn’t get hit by a football. You can tell me what it is.’ What was funny is he wouldn’t leave the room. He kept standing there [with his arms folded] and I was going in and out and [humming no].
Oh my! Talk about love hurts.

A few years ago, when Michel’le talked about the abuse from Dr. Dre, she admitted she stayed because she thought that getting beat was normal in a relationship:

I stayed because my father had never told me he loved me until just the last three years, so I think I had to go back and figure that out. It’s in my book but getting beat was love to me. Believe it or not when I got with Suge he really didn’t beat me. I asked him, ‘Why aren’t you beating me? You don’t like me?’ I asked him that.