'Life After Lockup' Couple Derek and Monique Are Engaged

Source: Courtesy / WeTV

BOSSIP’s Sr. Content Director Janeé Bolden caught up with WeTV breakout stars ahead of the finale and their engagement to discuss their relationship, clear up misconceptions and to get the scoop on what’s next for the couple.

While the pair have expressed gratitude to the people who have been with them on their journey, they also acknowledged that opening up their relationship to public opinion has been difficult at times.

“I’ve always been a private person when it came so my love life and who I’m dating,” Monique told BOSSIP in regards to letting the public in on her relationship with Derek via the Love After Lockup and Life After Lockup series. “So for it to be displayed on TV for the world to have their opinions and judge us it’s kind of — annoying for me. I’ve always been the type of person like I’m going to do what I want to do regardless whether people like it or not.”

“I’ve been the one to make it where it’s fun instead of focusing on the negative,” Derek shared. “It’s our life, let us live our life, no matter nobody else’s opinion or comment, don’t let that affect us. Let’s continue to enjoy each other, love each other and continue to live and do all the things we want to do we talked about when I was locked up.”

“It’s the person Monique is, her character, and not only that, she shows me exactly who she is,” Derek told BOSSIP about what he loves most about his fianceé. “When I was locked up she would tell me so much the person who she is and now that I’m out she’s showing me. The love she has for me I can’t compare it to nothing. It’s unconditional, it’s strong and I feel it. I know she’s the one that loves me. I can almost say she loves me and wants to see me happy sometimes more than she wants to see herself happy. It’s something that I never felt before, never had before. That’s why we still going strong.”

“What I love the most about Derek is he’s very loyal and he’s willing to do whatever it is to make me happy,” Monique told BOSSIP. “He really doesn’t care about what other people think, like he’s always going to do whatever is best for him.”

Sounds like they make a perfect match. Unfortunately, Monique and Derek’s families weren’t always on the same page about their decision to be together, and WeTV cameras were rolling during some pretty major fallouts.

“I would say my family as far as my sisters, they’re learning Derek and they kind of trust my judgment,” Monique said of her family’s opinion of her boyfriend. “It’s like whatever makes me happy like they’ll support it. It’s just a work in progress, but it’s moving in the right direction though.”

“It’s divided,” Derek shared about his own family’s take on Monique. “My father’s side loves to support me and Monique’s relationship. They love Monique like their own, they’re embracing our relationship. They welcomed her to the family and accepted her. Then you have my mother’s side which is more adversarial, where they want to figure Monique out and now it’s televised for the world to see. It’s kind of like, I always tell Monique they’re trying to really kind of test Monique and see if she’s the right one for me long term. I really like Monique and I want us to be married and have kids and my mother’s side really want to know if she’s the one. I was locked up at 20, they knew me then, so now they don’t see me as a grown man. It is all new, for the world, for my family and friends. It’s Derek in his grown up life, in adulthood so with that being said, I’m just focused on the people who support us. If you support us you can talk to us, you can be around us, you can enjoy our relationship and be a part of our family.”

On the show, Derek normally encourages Monique to ignore his sisters’ shenanigans — which she told BOSSIP she generally tries to do, however did admitted that cameras sometimes caught her when she was compelled to respond.

“I think anything that I ever said, I would say it was always a reaction,” Monique told BOSSIP about her negative interactions with Derek’s sisters. “But I’m definitely getting better at just ignoring them. I don’t need to prove my love for Derek to them. Our relationship is just between us and either they can be for it or not. And if not then I can just ignore you.”

Derek and Monique open up about misconceptions about their relationship when you continue…

Many fans of the show will recall the pricy dinner out that the couple had following Derek’s release, which had Monique looking like Derek’s sugar mommy to some viewers. Like many reality tv couples before them, Monique and Derek have also been subject to a lot of misconceptions so we asked if they could debunk some of the things from the show that have led the public astray.

“I would say the misconception that people automatically assume that I’m paying for everything in the relationship, but like Derek is not financially able right now and I would say that that’s a misconception of our relationship,” Monique answered.

“That’s one misconception that was early on,” Derek agreed. “Now it’s more so my fidelity. Granted, I was unfaithful to Monique. We’ve talked that through and it’s unfolding and we’re already past it. People see it and they like peel the wound back so to speak, because it’s already been a wound that we’re working and healing on. We’re going through counseling to be able to grow from it and learn from it so I could be a better person and be a better person to Monique. That’s one of the things that’s been misconstrued because it’s like , ‘Oh he did it then, he’s doing it now. ‘ No I haven’t, and we are together, we’re committed to each other. Stay tuned we have a lot of good things, special moments, in store for the world to see.”

When we continue, Derek and Monique discuss their reality tv regrets and what you could expect from a spinoff starring them.

Source: Courtesy / WeTV

When it comes to reality TV regrets, Monique was hard-pressed to think of anything she wishes the cameras didn’t catch — with one exception.

“Oh the whole you know he cheated on me with ten women I wish he wouldn’t never said that,” Monique admitted, before chiding her boo. “At least you could’ve warned me.”

“I was being honest I was telling my truth and it was a truth that should have been shared prior to, but it was an interview and they asked me and I was just being honest,” Derek admitted. “We’re still getting past that, we’re still learning to forgive each other for the things I’ve done. Not so much the things she’s done.”

“One of the things which I didn’t do, but I wish we could have they had longer dialogue on, is the simple part is me being more in this for the love I have for her it’s more so the the snippets in this in the parts where it only shows her treating me catering to me and it doesn’t really show me catering to her and treating her like a queen that she is so it’s that’s why it’s a lot more you’re gonna see you continue to watch you will see that me more transitioning from incarceration to being able to treat her and be more willing to show her my love out in the world.”

Obviously infidelity and trust have been major issues for this couple, but in our conversation they assured us that they’ve been working hard on their relationship to prevent any future missteps.

“The counseling has worked and I have just started anger management just recently, so I’m doing a lot of things to heal and help myself be a better person and that’s one of the things we’ve been doing,” Derek told BOSSIP. “Also, keeping our communication higher because she’s been more so in Cleveland with me daily, so now it’s a stronger relationship in itself. She’s from Chicago and I’m from Cleveland so we went from prison to long-distance, now she’s here so that has helped us be able to talk about the issues that we went through and the things that we’re facing. It’s not so much on being on camera, it’s more so like, ‘Okay this happened, how can I make you feel by saying certain things or doing certain things?’ Because before she didn’t say anything and I’d continue to do something because she hadn’t spoke on it. So now I know to ask, ‘Was that OK? Because sometimes she doesn’t say anything, she’s being unbothered, but it really bothered her.”

“When he first got out of prison we spent two weeks together and then we were long-distance for a minute,” Monique said, agreeing that the distance between them led to a lot of distrust. “Not physically being with him my mind was always wandering, like ‘What’s he doing?’ Now since we spend a lot of time together the trust is definitely stronger. We spend a lot of time together so I don’t feel the need to go through his phone.”

We could definitely see Derek and Monique turning their Life After Lockup fame into a spinoff of their own, so we asked the pair what kind of show they’d want to share with the fans.

“I would wanted to focus on me doing my weight loss journey, me working on my hair and beauty line as far as like wigs, cosmetics,” Monique told BOSSIP. “Us, you know, hopefully a baby.”

“Most definitely working on that,” Derek chimed in. “A baby and then some helping her with her weight loss journey and me focusing more on my profession, being a personal trainer/physical therapist and our business ventures and planning for our big day. Just continuing to navigate in our relationship on TV, showing our strong points and how we’ve overcome some things is inspiring. We’ve been through it, we dealt with it and it was all on TV and this is how we’ve done it and really show the world that it’s possible. We’ve been through things everyday people go through and still make it work being happy together because we figure it out every day.”

That’s a show we’d definitely tune in for.

Follow Derek and Monique on Instagram.