Draya Michele is defending herself following Laura Govan claiming that she “beat the sh*t” out of the model for creeping with her then-partner, Gilbert Arenas, only to later befriend her on VH1 series, Basketball Wives.
The swimwear designer‘s initial response was simple; an Instagram Stories post reading, “I don’t bother nobody. Why does nobody bother me (read that again),” essentially calling Govan a nobody. She later detailed the situation and questioned Govan’s recollection of events.
According to Michele, Arenas was not married when they were dealing with one another, so she doesn’t see herself as a “jumpoff,” as Govan described her. She also stressed that she dealt with the athlete “years before I was on the show,” and also denied being overly friendly and/or fake with Govan while on the reality series, another one of her claims.
“I did not know her then. And I also did not know her when I agreed to be on the show, or her sister [Gloria],” Michele shared within her since-deleted Instagram Stories Wednesday (Oct 30). “I didn’t even know either of them were going to be on the show, so to say the word ‘friend’ is a huge stretch.”
She went on to highlight what her presence did for the show, believing she brought “comedic relief” and “relatability” to the series, resulting in “the highest ratings that it had ever received.” Michele also insisted that her storylines “carried” the show, and that if something salacious involving her happened — as Govan claims she beat Michele up during production — it would have been aired, contradicting Govan’s claim that the fight was so brutal that VH1 buried it.
Govan made her original statements during a chat with Carlos King, as he asked the mother of four her thoughts on Gilbert publicly discussing being intimate with Draya in the backseat of a car. Govan knew of the moment, as Gilbert confessed it to her privately first. She didn’t, however, know that Draya was the woman in question, discovering the truth after finding out he sent her $25,000 and flew her to Los Angeles.
She believes Draya knew this while on Basketball Wives and befriended her deceitfully, resulting in a beatdown. Hear her side of the story below.
While Govan and Arenas never married, they dated from 2002 to 2014 and share four children.