Iyanla Vanzant is an internationally recognized inspirational speaker devoted to showing others to transform their lives and a lawyer, life coach, and TV personality. Her life story is like an epic journey with a dilemma, struggle, strength, audacity, and conquest. Through her life’s experience, she attained an almost unbreakable spirit and a strong will to keep living herself.
She also wrote various books for a class to work on when she was pursued by her friend to teach a class. She is a most sought-after guest by various radio shows due to her persuasive speech. The best part is, she teaches what she has learned.
Is Iyanla Vanzant Married? Children
Iyanla was married to two different men in the past. However, She is single now.
Iyanla Vanzant was continuously abused until she came to realize that it was just her normal day. At the age of 16, she had her first child, Gemmia, followed by two other children, Damon and Nisa. She got married to Charles Vanzant in 1973. Unfortunately, Charles turned out to be an abusive husband.
In an episode of Fix my Life, Iyanla spoke about how abuse was normal in her life because she grew up in an abusive household. She never spoke up when her first husband abused her frequently. In the same episode, she also cited that one day her husband was so furious that she had stabbed him with a knife to defend herself and fled away with her three children.
It is recorded that Iyanla and Charles were divorced in 1979.
Following her marital life, she found a man she wanted to love, and he was Adeyemi Bandele, whom she married in 1997. They both shared a gigantic love and had great affection for each other.
Iyanla Vanzant with her ex-husband Adeyemi Bandele (©:oprah.com)
They became co-parented three of Iyanla's children Nisa, Damon, and Gemmia. Despite having kids, they were not happy with their relationship as there arose many differences between which they couldn’t outdo together. In 2007, their married life concluded as they divorced and parted ways.
She was so in love with Adeyemi that even after parting ways, she kept on loving him. She explained that this love was necessary for her life to grow further and make her stronger.
After such hectic marital life, Iyanla Vanzant confessed that she had no desire to marry again because such a union is not an equal partnership during her appearance on OWN’s It’s Not You, It’s Men, with Tyrese and Rev Run.
After her unconditional affection towards Adeyemi, she concluded that love and pure relationship, and commitment could only exist among equals.
How Much Is Iyanla Vanzant Net Worth In 2021? Career
Iyanla Vanzant has one of the most significant events in life among the people of the world. After getting out of her toxic marriage with Charles, she got a law degree and worked as a public defender in Philadelphia.
But she wasn’t happy with her life, so she quit her job and began working on her book Tapping the Power Within: A Path to Self-Empowerment for Black Women. She initially sold her book for $5 outside churches before landing a publishing deal. She wrote 15 books, of which eight landed on the New York Times bestsellers’ list.
With these notable works of her, she was called out in various radio shows, which include The Tom Joyner Morning Show (Radio One), The Tavis Smiley Show (NPR), The Michael Baisden Show (ABC), and Tell Me More with Michel Martin (NPR).
These performances caught the attention of Oprah Winfrey. Oprah immediately roped in Iyanla to appear on her talk show. Later Iyanla landed her own talk show after appearing on Oprah’s show 20 times.
Unfortunately, the show didn’t do well, which compelled her to cancel the show after just one season. Oprah was blamed for the predicament, which sourced the relationship between them.
At the brink of bankruptcy, homelessness, and suicidal depression, she wrote a book based on her experiences titled Peace from Broken Pieces. This book instantly became a bestseller and helped mend Iyanla and Oprah’s friendship as they had many things in common.
Finally, when she landed her show Iyanla: Fix my Life on OWN Network, things started to look good for her. The series welcomed people with struggles in life, and Iyanla offered her words of healing and encouragement to the show's guests. After running it for nearly a decade, she has decided that the show's eighth season will be her last. But she still plans to help as many people as she can by trying new methods.
She also has acting experience. Most people are only familiar with Iyanla from her show and different talk show appearances. However, only some realize that she’s also done acting over the years. She’s appeared in a handful of TV shows, including Claws and Jane the Virgin. She also made an appearance in the 2017 movie Girls Trip.
Iyanla also has an app of her own called Mind Matter Meditation, which offers guided meditation sessions from Iyanla. Iyanla not only being an influential speaker; she’s also an entrepreneur. She is the founder of a Maryland-based company called Inner Visions Worldwide, where she supports every individual of the spiritual community to be the best version of their own.
Iyanla has received numerous awards and honors for the power and impact of her work. She was named one of the most dynamic speakers in the US (Emerge Magazine, 2000), among the country’s most 100 Influential Women (Women’s Day Magazine, 2003), one of the country’s most influential African Americans (Ebony Magazine, 2004), one of Halle Berry’s five “Sheroes” (Glamour Magazine, 2006).
The net worth of the American motivational speaker, Iyanla Vanzant, is recorded to be $4 million.
Who Is Iyanla Vanzant? Parents & Education
As per her birth date, 13 September 1953, Iyanla Vanzant is currently 67 years old. She was born in Brooklyn, New York, USA, in the back of a taxi, as Rhonda Eva Harris. She is the daughter of Sarah Jefferson, a railroad barmaid, and Horace Harris, who was largely absent from her life. Her mother died from breast cancer in 1955, when she was two. Paternal relatives then raised her, one of whom raped her at the age of 9.
She attended Medgar Evers College and Virginia Union University. Vanzant holds a Juris Doctor degree from the City University of Santa Monica (USM), Center for the Study and Practice of Spiritual Psychology. She currently resides in Upper Marlboro, Maryland. She is also an ordained New Thought Minister.
Vanzant is an honorary member of the Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority. On Christmas Day 2003, Vanzant’s 30 years old daughter, Gemmia, died from a rare form of colon cancer.