Naturi Naughton is having her best year ever. Not only is the actress gearing up for the return of the Starz drama, Power (June 25), but she’s preparing to welcome her first child with her boyfriend Ben.
“I feel really happy; pregnancy has been good to me,” Naughton tells Essence. “I’m in love, I’m looking forward to just sharing this next level of life. My whole life has been about working and being in the girl group and being on stage and being an actress, but now I get to really enjoy a bigger purpose, which is motherhood, so I’m really excited.”
On how she is preparing for motherhood:
Logistically, just trying to prepare my home, my nursery, prepare my mind. I don’t really know a perfect way to be prepared to be a mother. It’s really hard because there’s so many things that keep running through my mind and it feels like it’s never enough. However, talking to my mother more and just thinking about the examples I had through my grandmothers and my mother and I think just being prepared is just readying myself for what’s to come and just being ready for the blessing.
On what she and her partner wish to impart to their daughter:
We both just really appreciate Black culture. Ben wore a shirt from Ghana and my theme was “It takes a village to raise a child” for my baby shower. We just always try to incorporate African proverbs or Kente cloth or using different images to celebrate this beautiful Black girl that’s coming into the world. I think in society we get so caught up trying to assimilate and be like other people, but in reality what we feel is that we just want to celebrate who we are.
We’re in an interesting time. On one hand we’ve made so much progress as Black people in general, despite the current political climate, and then we’re having this really powerful #BlackGirlMagic moment. What kinds of things do you plan to impart to your daughter?
