*Just months into her new marriage LisaRaye had to start dodging rumors about her wedded bliss. The actress and First Lady of the Turks and Ciacos Islands, is taking the negative attention in stride and chalking it up to celebrity, all while denying the rumors the she and new hubby, the Honorable Michael Misick, are having trouble.
Rumors recently surfaced last month that the starlet and the Premiere were headed toward splitsville, built on the grumblings that Misick had fathered a child of a Miami woman and that the people of the islands were not particularly fond of their new First Lady LisaRaye. But the actress says it's all false.
"There were some rumors going around that Michael and I were getting a divorce and that the Islanders were saying they don't see me down there a lot," she reviewed. "I don't really know how these accusations came out that Michael and I are getting a divorce. Especially when I am still in my honeymoon stages right now. It's just not true. I've had a good handful of people calling me.
Being in the business, I've grown to have a thick skin. And I know that when you're hot, people want to talk about you - so I take it and reverse it and say, 'Ok, if you think that my life is that interesting, that you want to talk about it or start gossip, then go ahead."
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Michael Misick & LisaRaye
LisaRaye told EUR's Lee Bailey that perhaps people just don't believe that the two could be so in love so fast, but whatever the reason, she ensured that there is absolutely no trouble in paradise for the newlyweds.
She reiterated that the two are quite happy with their lives as a couple and with their careers apart.
"It's a wonderful relationship as far as being bi-coastal so to speak,"
she said. "It allows me to be able to have my career. I want to keep that and hold that. That is who I am and that is who I was when he met me. So he has no qualms about me staying here and fulfilling my contract and obligations and my goals - and supporting me in that. And I don't have a problem with him staying down there and running his country. He respects his people and he loves his island. Through that love and passion, he has opened up a new world for me. So I have the best of both worlds. I get to work in L.A. and then I get to go down and be the First Lady and stand by his side."
And as for the Islanders not liking her? Lisa Raye said she was quite surprised to hear that rumor.
"I make sure that I don't have the celebrity type unapproachable personality when I am there. The people there are so loving and so welcoming to me. When I am there, I'm home. I've never found anyone there that has said anything about me or looked at me differently. They've accepted me with open arms and I appreciate that."
The actress said that she supposes it all comes with the celebrity territory and has chosen to mostly disregard any rumors or accusations swirling around as she is quite sure of what's going on in her own life.
"You can't listen to it all," she advised. "You kind of keep yourself in the know of things, but you cannot let it run your life. I have so much on my plate right now; I can't cloud my mind with that junk."
When the actress/First Lady says she has a lot on her plate, she really means it. In addition to her current TV gig as Neesee James on the CW comedy "All of Us," LisaRaye recently launched and oversees two fashion lines in 2005 called Luxe & Romance, a lingerie line and Xraye, her new jeans line for women. but that's not all.
"I have teen pageants that I'm starting," she added. "I have a Lady Raye Foundation, which is a non-profit organization that holds the body of the Radiant Jewels Teen Pageant that I am starting in March in North Carolina. This pageant is to elevate young ladies in talent. And I just broke ground on a movie theater in the Turks and Caicos. A month ago, they didn't have a theater there. I thought it was perfect for their First Lady, who happens to be an actress, to build a cinema there. It's called the L Raye Theater and it opens in about a month."
In dabbling in fashion, the non-profit arena, pageantry, and theater ownership, LisaRaye is still working in Hollywood on the sitcom that she says keeps her grounded.
"The show keeps me seeing the lighter side of life and keeps me sane,"
she said. "I'm doing something that I've always wanted to do and I'm getting paid for it. I'm allowing myself to be LisaRaye the actress, and then I fly across the country and I'm the First Lady of Turks and Ciacos. That's a wonderful life. That's a fairy tale."
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