Evelyn Lozada and her daughter are enjoying the good life on 'Livin' Lozada'
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}For many years, Evelyn Lozada was known for her crazy, over-the-top antics on VH1’s “Basketball Wives.”
That show captured a tumultuous time in Lozada's life while she was falling in love with NFL star Chad "Ochocinco" Johnson, marrying him and then divorcing him after he pleaded no contest to domestic battery.
But after spending a few years away from the cameras and taking time to focus on herself, the 40-year-old mother of two is in the process of re-inventing herself. Now she hopes to be an inspiring role model for Latinas throughout the country.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}“It’s nice to be in a different environment, a positive show with a different message,” Lozada said on Fox News Latino’s VIP Room about her show, “Livin' Lozada,” now in its second season.
“I thought I was going to be done with reality TV," she added, "but then I said, ‘You know what, this is going to be different.’ I get to do it differently, and it feels good.”
On the show, which airs Saturday nights on Oprah Winfrey's OWN, Lozada is joined by her 22-year-old daughter, Shaniece Hairston, and her 2-year-old son Carl Leo, which she had with her fiancé, outfielder Carl Crawford of the Los Angeles Dodgers.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}While a lot of the show focuses on the positive moments in Lozada and Hairston’s lives – like Hairston’s budding modeling career and upcoming swimsuit line – the mother-daughter duo have also made it a point to talk about the down times. In the show's first season, Lozada opened up about her first miscarriage after having given birth to Leo, and, this season, she revealed she had a second miscarriage during Thanksgiving last year.
“This was what my reality was at the time,” Lozada said. “I could have chosen to say, ‘Hey, I don’t want to film this,’ but I just feel like women don’t talk about it. Women are embarrassed about it. Women take blame for having miscarriages.”
She added, “This is what my life is … We deal with real life situations and real life things that we go through. And that was what my reality was at the time.”
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Hairston said she was very hesitant initially to have cameras following her around but eventually caved. She said the experience has brought her even closer to her mom.
“We're a little too close,” she quipped to FNL, to which Lozada replied, “We’re like Frick and Frack, yin and yang … We’re best friends. We grew up together.”
“It’s a different dynamic,” Hairston added. “It’s something else to talk about. I think it made us closer, strangely enough.”
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Lozada said she hopes to continue to be able to use her TV platform to talk about issues like infertility and domestic violence while bringing a positive message to the small screen.
“You never know that’s going to happen during filming and what’s going on in your life. You can’t predict these things,” she said. “I just want to do positive, real reality TV.”