Hazel-E is bringing the heat to Marriage Boot Camp: Hip-Hop Edition.

Renowned for her spicy, these days the reality TV veteran is enjoying the calmer role of motherhood.

Before welcoming daughter Ava Dior, Hazel and partner De’Von Waller took part in the latest instalment of the hit WEtv series – which also features Phaedra Parks.

As the drama heats up on screen, That Grape Juice caught up with the smitten couple, who opened up about their romantic journey, parenthood, and living with their co-stars.

Hazel also dished on a possible return to ‘Love & Hip-Hop.’

Our exclusive chat awaits after the jump…

That Grape Juice: Congratulations on the birth of your daughter Ava Dior! How has parenthood been? How has it changed you?

Hazel-E: : Ava Dior darling! Oh my God, when I think for both of us, probably I’m speaking for De’Von, but patience, because having a newborn it requires patience. Because you always have to eat and cook and sleep and they cry and you just have to be able to take that woosah moment and help them. They’re helpless so–

De’Von: They’re relying on you 100%.

Hazel-E: Yeah, patience. Because I’m an unpatient person, I am testy, I’ll be on edge, we’ll both be on edge, we’re 0 to 100-type people. So, patience for sure. It’s been good for me overall. Because I’m “blah” to the BS, to the drama, I really don’t have time for it. I don’t even have time to go back and forth with b*tches online anymore at this point. I am out here paying people dust. I’m living my best life and my focus is my family and Ava. I’m turning a cold shoulder, I don’t see it from my haters, it’s really making me put down my petty boots and focus on what’s important.

That Grape Juice: Tell us a little about your decision to star on Marriage Boot Camp?

De’Von: I don’t know, I just felt going to Marriage Boot Camp, it’s a new thing, it’s my first time being on TV, so it was kind of walking into it blind, so I didn’t really know what to expect. I can handle anything, because I believe God wouldn’t put you through anything that you can’t handle. So I was looking at the situation and–

Hazel-E: And our relationship was six months in before we started.

De’Von: Yeah, we were a fresh new couple, right. And we were trying to still focus on learning each other. And then we had to really expose and tell our problems, and really grow as a couple–

Hazel-E: That was what was great for Boot Camp–

De’Von: Yes, we got to see really what our issues was in the house–

Hazel-E: And to see if we actually wanted to be together for–

De’Von: Yes, right for each other. Like doctors said in the house, “If you don’t have nothing to fight for, it’s not worth fighting for”, right?

Hazel-E: And we just wanted to put our love to the test. For me, personally, I honestly needed De’Von to jump through a couple of hoops, because I didn’t do too well in my past relationships. I wear my heart on my sleeve, so, I needed to see if he was willing to that.

De’Von: She was worth it, so that’s why I did it because I’m telling you right now, I’m not about to go through all this for just a relationship. So, I kind of made sure it’s worth it for myself, that I’m not wasting my time.

That Grape Juice: What was it like being in a house with people you didn’t know while trying to work through your issues?

Hazel-E: I mean, I was spicy in the house for most of it. That’s classic Hazel, right? I’m not dialing it down, if you say something to me I’m taking you on. So that part was kind of uncomfortable because now I have to come face-to-face with people that talk about me online and have got so much to say, other females that have whatever their opinions are about me. And not only do we have to do these exercises with them, we have to live with them too. Doing the exercise was the easy part.

De’Von: Doing the exercises and everything, that was fine.

Hazel-E: Yeah, with the Dr.

De’Von: It’s like after when we’re on our own chilling out, that’s when it was like, “Okay”.

Hazel-E: That’s when it was crazy.

De’Von: I’m a private person; I like to have my personal space. I feel like people were in my house and invading my space.

Hazel-E: But that’s what we signed up for.

De’Von: Yes, that’s what we signed up for.

Hazel-E: And honestly, it was kind of cool because sometimes you can see other couples that have a different set of issues and you get to kind of witness how they work through it too. So, I liked the group therapy setting.

De’Von: Because I looked at other people’s situation, and I’m like, damn, I see the pain and hurt in her face and the pain in his face certain things that they go through, certain tests, and I’m like damn that’s a wakeup for me because that could happen to me too, I’ve just got to make sure I stay and do what I’m supposed to do.

Hazel-E: We loved Kurupt and Vado.

And it was honestly also it was great to be able to have other people to talk to about your problems, because they’re in this house and you’re really there to bond with the people that you live with and are in the therapy. So, we weren’t allowed to use our phones, we weren’t allowed to call our friends, our parents, we weren’t allowed to do that. So, we had to really lean upon the other people in the house and evaluate their opinions and see how we could make things better with us. So, I like the group therapy, I can vouch for it, I can say that for us, personally.

Marriage Boot Camp works for us.

De’Von: I never thought something like that would but it did.

That Grape Juice: How has lockdown impacted your relationship?

Hazel-E: We got stronger.

De’Von: Before lockdown we were doing this. Staying in and doing things together.

Hazel-E: Yeah, we were kind of doing this because we’re really to ourselves, but we got pregnant pretty early in our relationship, we hadn’t even done a year yet. So, honestly, what were we going to be doing? I was pregnant anyway. So the pandemic was like, all right, we can’t go to restaurants and maybe that type of social stuff, but we got a lot of things done. We made sure we had a healthy pregnancy, we cooked our own food instead of eating fast food every day. Our baby came out 10s across the board, no illnesses, no issues. And I felt like coronavirus we just took it serious, we locked down and protected our family.

De’Von: I don’t have a problem being with you every day. I’ll be with her every day for the rest of my life.

That Grape Juice: Hazel, many got to know you on ‘Love & Hip-Hop.’ Could we see you back on that platform?

Hazel-E: I don’t think the platform’s going to be back on the platform. Actually, honestly, I was coming back for season seven, it was in the works. But the pandemic has seen all of the Love & Hip-Hop franchises from New York to LA. So I don’t know if the platform is coming back.

If they figure out if they’re ever going to come back, then we can get to the decision if I’m going to come back. Because WeTv we have so much stuff coming up with them. I just got my own little segment on WeTv.com called, “Hazel-E’s Hot Sheet,” it’s an after the show feature. You’re going to see me running down all the scoops inside the Marriage Boot Camp house, so that’s going to be lit. We’re just going to focus on opportunities that we’re doing with We. I also dropped my new EP, “Girl Code, Vol. 2”.

De’Von: Fire.

Hazel-E: Fire. So we’re going to focus on what we’ve got going on over here, so they just figure out what they’re going to do over there.

De’Von: And that’s that on that.

That Grape Juice: What would each of you say are three key ingredients to a healthy relationship?

De’Von: I definitely say paying attention to what your partner is saying, loyalty and honesty, keeping it real, being honest at all times, never folding, just being honest with your partner and no secrets.

Hazel-E: Yeah, for me, I’m adding for my personal one, knowing each other’s boundaries.

De’Von: Yeah, definitely boundaries.

Hazel-E: Yeah like one thing we learned in the house is the doctors taught us how to fight with each other, not how to cut somebody too low under the belt too to where you can’t come back from it.

Also, I think just the love, loyalty, trust, honesty, that’s its own whole segment. And then, building a future together. Us planning our future together is making us so happy even though we’re in a pandemic. We’re about to buy our first house together, planning for our destination wedding per the pandemic ending.

De’Von: Dreams are definitely coming true, I’ll tell you that.

Hazel-E: We got to have our first daughter together, so these things, these activities, these life goals that we set keep us in a great mood with each other.

De’Von: Yeah, in a great mood, waking up every day feeling blessed.

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‘Marriage Boot Camp: Hip-Hop Edition’
Continues Every Thursday on WE tv at 9/8c!

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