Victoria Monét Recalls Music Executive Telling Her Career Would ‘Slow Down’ After Having a Child

Victoria Monét walked out on a teammate who tried to encourage her to terminate her pregnancy.

The three-time Grammy winner was a guest on the July 23 episode of IMO With Michelle Obama and Craig Robinson, and reflected on her former employee attempting to talk her out of becoming a mother. Just months after releasing her Jaguar EP, in February 2021, Monét welcomed her daughter, Hazel Monét, with her now-former partner, John Gaines.

Around the 21-minute mark, Monét said that she was told her business may "slow down" after having a child. "It's difficult, but it's also something that you're supposed to feel celebratory about because it's a blessing and not everybody gets that opportunity that wants it," she said.

Monét found herself in a sensitive balance of going through with her pregnancy while "apologizing" to business partners, before one person insensitively warned that her career would change as a mother.

"I had a person on my team, though the intentions were good, really, really hurt my feelings because they made a PowerPoint presentation to me about how difficult it will be for me," Monet explained.

The "On My Mama" singer said that their examples included the high costs of child care and other topics before concluding with 'What's the rush?'

"So it felt like an encouragement to get an abortion," she continued. "So that was really, really hurtful. And I walked out of that meeting."

"I walked out of the meeting with that same fight that I had when I left home, like, 'I'm gonna do this. It's my body and I'm gonna make it work even if it's hard. I'm not scared of hard things, I can do hard things."