Yandy Smith-Harris is sticking with Mendeecees after the fake wedding debacle: ‘No piece of paper will say that is my husband’

Though she’s addressed the topic of true love and her real-fake husband Mendeecees Harris before, LHHNY mainstay Yandy Smith-Harris still has to defend herself from haters. And that’s never been truer than after she and Mendeecees’ most tumultuous season of Love & Hip Hop to date. After two separate former loves came out of the woodwork with tales of Mendeecees’ infidelity and baby daddy doins, Yandy was forced to reveal something that had long been rumored: she and Mendeecees’ grand Love & Hip Hop wedding at the end of Season 5 was all for show, since she never actually signed the marriage license.

It seems that Yandy and Mendeecees got real-fake married in order to fake out any past girlfriends of Mendeecees’ who might come after him for child support while he was in prison. (So LHHNY basically flash-forwarded the entire main storyline of Season 7 with the wedding special at the end of Season 5, in a move to make Mitchell Hurwitz proud.)

So, now that the secret’s out, Yandy has to deal with more fake-fake relationship hate than ever before–and she has to do it all by herself, because Mendeecees’ very real eight-year prison sentence isn’t up until the fall of 2021. But, in a new interview, Yandy confirmed that she and Mendeecees are staying together…because the love they share is really real.

“Oh my goodness! I thought I made that so clear!” Yandy exclaimed, in a new interview with BET. “There is no piece of paper that will say that is my husband or not. For me, personally, I love that man…that is my baby, my baby daddy, my husband, and everything in between.”

“It was never a lie,” Yandy went on, describing the fake-fake part (marriage) of the real-real relationship (and TV show). She explains that the love she has for Mendeecees overrides any outside drama: nothing can change the fact that, emotionally, she feels as committed to Mendeecees as she would if the two of them were actually, legally married.

So there’s really nothing to discuss: “I was married then,” Yandy concluded, “and I’m married now.”

LHHNY Season 8 is expected to begin filming in the summer of 2017.

(Photo credits: Yandy and Mendeecees staying together via Instagram)