Just anybody. I would go to gay clubs and meet girls just to have someplace to sleep.

Where were the kids? [LeLee has two children]
My sister was taking care of them. It was so hard for me to tell this story, but I am comfortable with telling it now. But it was crazy.

We got ripped of so bad; we didn’t now what to do. We had a tax ID-we had a company account-but we didn’t even know the tax ID number. That’s how bad it was. This accountant we had, he was horrible. I enjoy the stage; I love the people, and it’s the people that make you really want to keep doing this. But I don’t know if being in this business was good or a curse.

I would think that you would go on a speaking circuit. You can tell your story to get young girls to change their lives.
Well, Taj has a foundation, and I have done that actually. She had me come out and speak to teen mothers in shelters and I really enjoyed it because it brought me back. I was pregnant at 15 with my first child. I had a second child at 17, so you had my father’s side that was so educated ad they looked so down (on) me and told me I would be nothing-be on welfare and all those things. I was working since I was 14; I dropped out of school to work.

How did you get in the group (SWV)?
I started the group, I put everything together. I saw Shanice Wilson on “Star Search,” I was like ‘wow, I wanna do that.’

So nobody came out of the group with any money?
I don’t know what they had. I really don’t now. Once the group disbanded, the record company gave me $25,000 and that was it.

You all [hadn’t] really talked to each other?
We were so screwed up. I mean we were all messed up.

Were you promiscuous?
I was very promiscuous as a kid. I was bad.

Why was that?
My mom had me at 45, so as I grew up, my mom was old. So if you ask my mom about a condom she’s like, “What you want to know about that for?” I had to learn everything on my own from men.

On how she seriously contemplated suicide: (via the Bethenny Show)
“I was very depressed. I mean I got to the point where I was just going to end my life. It was that bad. If I couldn’t have, what I had before, if I couldn’t have SWV and be who I was, as the world knew me as, I wanted to die,”

How she overcame her most crucial suicidal thought: (via the Bethenny Show)
“I was at the Marriott Marquee on 42nd Street and umm, I was up to my last $150,” Lyons shared. “I was like, ‘Damn, I can’t afford to be in here another night. So, I called my sister, one of my sisters and she didn’t answer the phone. I called my other sister. It was no conversation. This is how the spirit works. I’m telling you because, all she said was, ‘Just come home.’ And we just was crying. I went in that hotel, looked in the mirror and I just cried. I’m like, ‘What were you thinking?’ Had she not answered that phone, I probably wouldn’t be here today.”

On being homeless and broke at her group member, Taj’s wedding to her husband, former NFL player Eddie George
When I was a bridesmaid at Taj’s wedding, I was homeless. It was just a pride thing. It was so much pride. As long as my kids were taken care of, I can always go from one apartment to another to shack with people. As long as I have someplace to stay for the night. it was crazy.

So what it like being back with Coco and Taj?
I love it, it’s like everybody’s so renewed. Everything that happened between us-all the bickering-it was meant to happen.

Wow! Here’s one thing about LeLee’s story that stood out to me. We all too often see young ladies who are promiscuous and in our society, many of us are so quick to write them off as just being “whores” and “moral-less” people. But the fact of the matter is that we, as a society, should probably rethink checking that attitude toward them at the front door and maybe try paying closer attention to the broken child that lies beneath the surface of the women we see standing before us today.

LeLee is a great example that not everything is what it seems on the surface. She’s proven to have been a misguided child, who grew up to be a woman of strength, a woman of character, a humble spirit and one of the realest personalities in the music game, because many people would be far too embarrassed to publicly reveal their weaknesses and hardships, like she has. She overcame many adversities and soared to the top; then dropped down to what probably felt like a bottomless pit; and now in her 40’s she has managed to climb out of it and rebuild once again. No one gave…