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Lauren Cofie recently went viral for all the wrong reasons, but she’s embracing the moment as nothing but a blessing.

The singer, songwriter, model, presenter and creative hails from Nottingham in the UK, but currently resides in London. Her newest venture includes being casted on the reality TV show titled Blue Therapy, streaming on BET+. The show follows five couples on therapeutic journeys as they talk through relationship problems, even following them into their daily lives and what they do for work.

While the majority of couples are black, Cofie is mixed while her boyfriend Michael is white. The viral moment transpired when they were arguing back and forth, with race being the prominent  factor. After Cofie revealed her insecurities of not being invited to his family’s huge holiday gathering, Michael states, “Look, I’ll be honest. I’ve never dated a black girl before.”

Boom! Cuts to commercial. The couple had been dating for a year by the time the show came around, with Cofie pursuing her music career and her boyfriend working at a doggy daycare.

SHEEN spoke to Lauren Cofie in downtown Los Angeles to discuss her viral moment and new music.

 

How did you get casted for the Blue Therapy show? 

Michael saw it and applied it. The craziest thing is because I’m this singer-songwriter, trying to be a superstar, and he works at a doggy daycare. His words not mine, he’s always saying “I’m just picking up dog shit and you’re in the studio with these celebrities.” So he’s quite insecure. I’m always going to red carpets, in the press, and he’s not like that at all. He’s never seen a camera, and he asked me to go on the show. 

I’m like, are you sure you want to go on TV? He’s so low key, which is part of the issue. Even on the show, “I just want a normal girlfriend.” Go back to your exes then! Don’t be with a superstar and try to make me just be with you. He told me before applying, he asked if I’d want to go on the show. He said “I don’t think you’d do normal therapy.” I’ve got ADHD, I can’t focus. I just want to be creative and put my music out. I think he thought “oh, it’s a bit of Lauren.” It was so out of character for him. I’m like oh okay, let’s go on the show. 

Talk about what lead to that viral moment! 

There was a few things. But the main thing that everyone is raving on about,there was a racial situation issue. Obviously, I’m half black. My dad’s from Ghana, West Africa. My mom’s British, Scottish. I’m mixed race, black and white. And he’s white. He put me on the show for normal reasons, so I started getting into him and the fact that I had not even met his family. They’ve gone on a family holiday, I said oh that’ll be nice. We’ve got some time off, that will be good. 

He said, “oh no, it’s literally just the family.” Him, his mom, his sister, one of his cousins. I’m looking here in LA. I traveled anyway, doing my thing, so I didn’t really push it. Oh okay, family holiday. I go on Instagram and I see that everyone brought everyone. There’s a viral moment where I say “everyone brought their mans, their goldfish.” Everyone’s like “their goldfish?! On a holiday?” [laughs] Everyone had their partners. It was a big, huge gathering and I wasn’t invited. He was there on the end. I was thinking, why am I not included? I haven’t mentioned anything yet, so I say this on the show. 

They way it comes out, he’s like, “Look, I’ll be honest. I’ve never dated a black girl before.” Boom, cut to commercial! My face is [shocked]. What? You never dated a black girl before?!

Is it actual therapy? 

Yeah, it’s TV. They’re relationship coaches, so you’re sat there and they’re guiding you with your partners. They’re really good as well. We’re sat there doing that and everything’s filmed. He says he’s never dated a black girl before. People without even reading more or watching the show, they’ve gone off. You know cancel culture these days, everyone’s like “he’s racist!” It went crazy. All the pages posted this clip around the world, it was crazy.

How’d you feel?

I felt a bit bad for Michael. [laughs] For TV, it looks crazy. You didn’t bring me home ‘cause I’m black? Are you racist? But on the real when we break it down, we’re in an interracial relationship. He lives outside of London as well, so it’s less ethnic. It’s white, so he’s never had a black girlfriend. He was a bit worried, in case they’d say something silly. Which I then started to understand because white people do always say something. Small little things, because they don’t understand. Just like I don’t understand what might offend gay people. 

When it’s not your thing, so it’s not even a crime that he was worried in case they might say something that might upset me. Especially me, I’m so intense. I always tell him, because I’ve been through so much racism. I think I scared him off again. Oh my gosh, if they say one little thing… even something small, that I’d go off. He was worried. Once I heard him out, I calmed down.

We spoke in therapy for so long about so many things. By the time it came out, we didn’t even realize that it was going to blow and how everyone would see it. Still in the comments, there’s a lot of black people saying, “guys, we’re the same. If I bring a white person home, it’s a bit tricky.” The fact that we’re from different races, I’m not just a normal “white girl” going to his white family and everything’s daisy. We are different. People say “Oh, I don’t see race like that.” It’s false. People will have their views, people might say silly things. It was a bit more of a surprise, but the way it all came out and everyone’s like “wow.”

How’s family responding to all this?

He’s crazy. Can you imagine you’re home and someone’s saying something crazy about you like that? Especially because it was hypothetical. It’s not like everyone was saying “their family is racist!” He did give them a heads up that he touched on it, but that he said from his perspective. Even just not taking me home yet. They were okay with it I guess, but I guess they didn’t know it was going to be this big on social media.

So now you have to plug your music?

Yes! I was singing on my show, they were playing my music. They went with Michael on his normal day at work, walking the dogs. [laughs] Me in the studio, it was really good.

How did you guys meet? 

We met on Tinder. We met on a dating app. That was also one of the parts when we met, because he lied to me about his height. That’s part of the story: he said that he was 5’11”, he was 5’7” or 5’”. That was another one of the issues we brought up. Certain things, like he thought I was in love with my friends. I did kiss him ages ago, so that was revealed on the show. I’ve never told him. Him there and the therapist asking me, let me be honest. I had to block the friend off, because we kissed ages ago. There was so many points and everyone had their opinions, it was a lot. [laughs]

Talk about your music background, who have you worked with? 

I’m a singer-songwriter so I write my songs, I write for other people too. The last song I’ve put out, “What You Guna Do About It?”, is a song with a Nigerian artist Willie XO. I’ve got house music. I have a house song with Idris Elba.

I saw that! You guys played it in Ibiza?

Yes. We’ve got a few, that’s the one we’ve put out so far. I’ve known him for a long time now, as friends first and foremost. Eventually, we got into doing the music. They’re amazing, the whole team. That’s one of many. I’ve got a few things in the pipeline.

 

Photo Credits: Courtesy of Lauren Cofie