The last time Brandy appeared on "The Oprah Winfrey Show" in March of 2002, she was 23 years old, pregnant and had recently gotten married -- or so she said.
At the time, Brandy had been involved with music producer Robert Smith. The singer told Oprah that the two secretly wed the summer prior. But, after their daughter was born and the couple separated, Brandy's ex revealed that there had never been a marriage. Speaking with Oprah for this weekend's "Oprah: Where Are They Now?", Brandy explains what made her tell the big lie.
"At that time, being pregnant out of wedlock was not a trend," she says in the above video. "It was a sin."
With her innocent, clean-cut reputation, the Grammy-winning singer also felt the pressure to maintain her public image.
"I felt the pressure of having to be perfect. And I was scared," Brandy admits. "I thought that everything that I have worked hard for and everything that I worked to build -- the image that I worked so hard to build -- was threatened."
Now, the 35-year-old mother feels remorse for lying to Oprah. "I'm really sorry for that," Brandy apologizes. "I mean, you just don't lie to Oprah!"
In the video below, Brandy appears on HuffPost Live and talks more about why she feared telling the truth at the time.
Brandy's interview on "Oprah: Where Are They Now?" airs Sunday, August 3, at 9 p.m. ET on OWN.
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