Brandy has opened about being romantically involved with Boyz II Men singer Wanya Morris when she was a teenager.
In an excerpt from her new memoir, Phases, as shared by Entertainment Weekly, the Grammy-winning R&B vocalist recounted being introduced to Morris in 1995 when she was an opening act on Boyz II Men's II World Tour, which came one year after Brandy, then 16 years old, released her eponymous debut album.
In the book, Brandy recounts being "too young to recognize she was being used" by Morris, who was 22 years old when the two began dating, although Brandy kept it a secret from her parents. Morris was first considered to be an "anchor" and "confidant" by Brandy when he was her mentor before their relationship went further.
"What had begun as admiration had transformed into something else," Brandy wrote in the book. "It seems to me that he weaponized my admiration, shaped my friendship into dependence, my respect into desire. I felt swept up in a current I couldn’t control."
The two collaborated on the remix to Brandy’s "Brokenhearted," and the singer recalled sharing "unspoken energy" with Morris on the set of the music video.
"We moved around each other like opposing magnets — as if actively trying to maintain distance even as we kept finding ourselves drawn into each other’s orbit," Brandy said. "The attraction was subtle yet undeniable. It lived in the pauses between conversations, and it lingered in the charged atmosphere surrounding us."
It was later that Brandy said Morris entered into a relationship with her, when she was just a teen, and they both thought they were "madly in love."
"'My girlfriend is sixteen.' I don't remember when he first said it. But those four words started rolling off his tongue whenever we were alone," Brandy claimed Morris used to say.
"I couldn't tell if this refrain was meant to soothe his own conscience or temper the questions shimmering in my gaze," she said. "Perhaps it was his way of tethering himself to a boundary, even as he quietly edged past it. Or maybe it was simply a reminder to himself, a whisper to keep the illicit nature of our connection in view."
Elsewhere in the book, Brandy revealed that she lost her virginity to Morris and that the experience "lacked the specialness" that she thought it would be "because it wasn't about me at all."
The two eventually split after Brandy claimed she caught Morris in multiple infidelities, one being with his assistant.
"I was sixteen years old, dealing with the infidelity of a grown man who I believe had pursued me, took my innocence, and was now revealing he'd not been faithful," Brandy claimed. "I may have been young, but I was wise enough to know I had been played. And that wasn't love."
Morris previously confirmed that he dated Brandy when she was "16, 17, around that time" while on The Breakfast Club in 2021, but then added that "she was old enough to get it."
"It was a relationship," he said. "It grew and then it ungrew."
