Last week, a rumor circulated that Basketball Wives‘ Gloria Govan and her fiancé, Matt Barnes, had called off their wedding just weeks before it was supposed to take place. We reached out to Gloria for a comment and she didn’t get back to us…until now. Gloria tells us that while the wedding has been “postponed,” she and Matt remained committed to each other as they prepare to move from Orlando to Los Angeles (last month, Matt signed with the Lakers). “I’m sure to a lot of people’s dismay, this is nothing super dramatic. There was no infidelity involved, no window-smashing, nothing of the sort,” she tells us.
Below is a full transcription of our chat about her marital situation, including confirmation that they informed their families and friends of the postponement via text, why it took her over a week to respond to the report and why she’s possibly rejoining Basketball Wives for a second season, despite previously saying she wouldn’t…
Is the wedding off?
The wedding has been postponed. We haven’t canceled anything, we just pushed it back a little bit. Matt and I are together and still committed and dedicated to working on our relationship, we just don’t feel like marriage or a wedding should be rushed into or forced upon by outside sources. We feel like it’s the right thing to do for our family. I know there are crazy rumors going around, but I’m sure to a lot of people’s dismay, this is nothing super dramatic. There was no infidelity involved, no window-smashing, nothing of the sort. We both just kind of realized that maybe we should take a little more time to work on our relationship and then try to work on it.
At least with me, you’ve always acknowledged that your relationship isn’t perfect.
Exactly. I don’t know if a lot of people understood that about me. A lot of people are saying, “I told you so.” There’s nothing they told me so about. I’ve always contended that Matt and I are not close to perfect – never have been, never will be. Like any relationship, we work on it everyday. That’s kind of it. We felt like things were a little rushed or maybe too influenced by society to make it official, but we’re going to do it when we’re ready. I think that’s what threw people off.
If it wasn’t infidelity or window-smashing, is there anything you can point to that made you come to this decision?
Nothing in particular. A lot of our friends are getting married this year, tons of our friends got married last year and a few couples are, unfortunately, getting divorced this year. I think that made us step back to figure out why we’re doing this, if we’re really ready for it. Like I said, we’re both committed and dedicated to this relationship, so we didn’t feel the need to sign a piece of paper right now. But there are tons of factors that contributed, like the stress and where we were going, this being the off-season, not being sure where we’re headed, what we’re going to do. There were also little stresses that probably threw us off a little bit, on top of planning a wedding, which is a lot of stress.
Have the day-to-day functions of your relationship with Matt changed since your decision to postpone the wedding?
Oh yeah. This hasn’t affected our relationship in a negative way, by any means. We still are together, we still hang out, we still have the boys. They’re in school, so we’re using that time to work on each other and just hang out. We’re taking the time to just chill. We’re good. We’re going to L.A. We’re looking at places now. We have to find something that’s family-oriented, but close to facilities. Our focus has shifted from a wedding to just establishing a new life in a new area on a new team. That’s what’s important for our family now.
Did Matt alert his groomsmen to this news via text message?
Yeah. We both did. He told his family and I told mine. With modern-day technology or BBM, we were just letting people know what was going on. There wasn’t a negative connotation to that, it was the quickest way to tell people, because the invitations had just gone out. We wanted to tell people, “Even though you just got an invitation two days ago, we wanted to postpone things.” All of our family and friends were very supportive and very understanding. They gave us our privacy. They weren’t hounding us or anything like that.
It was interesting that Matt was quiet about it on his Twitter, and that the original blog post about the wedding included him asking that people respect his privacy. It seemed like something was up.
Obviously, when you cancel something so close to its date, people are going to start coming up with questions and rumors. We had both asked our families and friends to back off a little bit. We told them we knew what we were doing and that they should trust that it was what’s best for our family. I could see where people misconstrued that, but it was just to let people know that we knew what they were doing and that they shouldn’t call, email or text us like, “Hey! What’s going on?”
Did you take a while to get back to me for the same reason?
Yeah. Before we released stuff, we wanted to let everything settle and wrap our heads around things. We’re going to a wedding this weekend, so we’re kind of preparing ourselves to be bombarded. We just weren’t in a hurry to answer anybody’s questions or address any rumors.
Were you embarrassed over having to postpone the wedding?
It was a little embarrassing. We knew our focus was shifting from marriage to reestablishing a life in a different city, in a different state. I think we should have let people know a little more ahead of time. But I wasn’t humiliated. This was a mutual decision: no rush, we’re still together, this is no big deal.
Do you have your sights set on another date?
We’re thinking next summer, but you never know. It might not be as big as we’d planned. Our ideas have shifted. We could go and run off during all-star break. You never know.
Is there anything else out there that you wanted to counter?
Not really. I don’t spend a lot of time on blogs, looking myself up. The only reason I know about rumors is that a lot of people started emailing and texting us links. No rumor is important enough for me to address. Rumors are just that: rumors. Matt and I know what’s going on. Our immediate family and people that love us know what’s going on. That’s what’s important.
Taken from VH1.com!
