“KJ Smith DROPS BOMBSHELL REVELATION |Confirms What We Thought All Along!”
Between the time I called Tyler and getting to the emergency room, it was thirty minutes, and my child’s heart rate had dropped significantly.
I won’t say the number, but I almost lost my life, and my child’s life, and Tyler made the phone call so that I could go where I needed to go, and live.
That is the sentence KJ Smith said out loud in 2025, and it is the sentence that makes everything else about her story make sense.
Because before she was Andi Barnes, the sharp-tongued attorney on Tyler Perry’s Sistas, before she was a wife, before she was a mother, she was a girl from Tallahassee who spent ten years eating ramen and wondering if the door would ever open.
And when it finally did open, it opened because a man in a sixty-five-inch frame stood in a room on her birthday and asked her a question that changed her life.
So before you watch another episode of Sistas, you need to know what one line in KJ Smith’s medical record said, because the woman who plays the toughest lawyer on BET spent the end of 2024 believing something about her own body that turned out to be wrong.
This is the story of the secret years in Los Angeles, the first Tyler Perry movie, the co-star who changed everything, those medical records, and the scariest night of her life.
And stay to the end, because the story behind her baby’s name is one you will not see coming.
KJ Smith was born on May 6, 1985, in Tallahassee, Florida, on the side of town where the streets are named after states, and growing up there shaped her.
“My parents never let me believe that I was a bad kid or we were poor or in the ghetto, even though we were,” she said.
“So I didn’t even have that concept. It wasn’t till people brought it to my attention, like, you think you better than us, you live here too. And I was like, oh, I guess I do. And then that’s when the programming happens, when you’re like, oh, I guess I am no better than anybody else. And then you have to unlearn all that stuff that you learned.”
She learned something else in Tallahassee, too, because the neighborhood had a way of testing her.
“I used to get beat up,” she said. “Long story short, my mom said, you come back here, and I had two black eyes. Yeah, I’m light-skinned, so it was popping out. And my mom said, now if you get beat up again like this, I’m going to beat you up. So I was like, oh, okay. So I learned how to fight. And so then I started protecting myself at some point.”
That is the first thing you need to understand about KJ Smith.
She was not discovered.
She was built.
After college she headed west.
“This is after I went to Florida State, got a bachelor’s, went to FAMU for grad school in journalism,” she said. “And I went out there and I was like, I’m just going to get any job. I thought I was going to go to law school. That’s what I told my parents.”
She laughed about it later, because God apparently had a different degree in mind.
“I passed the bar on film,” she joked. “Like, hire me. Five hundred dollars an hour.”
But the early years in Los Angeles were not funny.
She worked at a dive bar called the Cork, a place with a jukebox and a clientele that did not always behave.
“I would work that overnight,” she said. “It got shot up one time when my sister came to visit.”
Nobody out there believed in her, and getting an agent with no credits is close to impossible, so she got creative.
“I was like, it’s going to go how I say it’s going to go,” she said. “When agents and managers would do showcases, I would put myself out there. Half of my friends that I met in this business was us just putting ourselves out there. I don’t care if it was a karaoke night, live poetry. We were just going and seeing if we could get our shot, because someone’s going to be in here.”
She used the journalism degree the way a carpenter uses a hammer.
“I was like, I’m going to use this degree to the fullest because I paid for it,” she said. “And so I started saying, how can I get myself out there? And I created Sheila Guthrie. I would just type up these emails, super professional, and send them out, mass emails.”
The small parts in indie films came slowly, and along the way came an audition for the CW’s Dynasty.
She booked it, or she thought she did.
“I called my manager. I was like, killed it. Murdered it. It’s mine,” she said. “And then they were like, oh, you’re the top choice. And I was like, great. It felt natural, it felt fine. And then like a week later they were like, oh, they want someone else. And I was like, okay, because in this business you have to let it go. I’ve done the get-too-committed thing and then I cry and it’s a whole thing, and then I’m in bad shape for a week and I can’t focus on other things. So I was just like, okay, let it go.”
Then the phone rang again.
“They gave me a call and they were like, we need you on a plane by six.”
And to understand what happened next, you have to know about her father.
“My father was sweet as pie,” she said. “He loved me in a way that was adoring. I don’t know if that is even the right word. He loved me in a way that was nurturing and beautiful. And he would cry in front of me, and he was just amazing. But I didn’t necessarily grow up with my father even though my parents were married. My father was disabled, so he had a special living situation.”
She still supports United Cerebral Palsy because of him.
Then, right before her big break, something happened at home.
“My father had passed just before,” she said. “Honestly, I was going to move back home, because I was like, what am I doing? I wasn’t there when he died. I was just like, what am I doing? My family needs me. My family was struggling. It was just a lot of stuff going on.”
Instead, a self-tape request came in, and Tyler Perry cast her in A Madea Family Funeral.
It should have been the break of a lifetime, but the timing could not have been harder.
“I was depressed during that time,” she said. “And to be shooting a movie about a funeral after my father had passed away. My father passed away in January. I think I booked that film in February. We were shooting in March. And I was grieving so hard. I was a walking wreck.”
Then came the moment that flipped everything.
After KJ booked her role, the production staff gathered the cast to celebrate, and it also happened to be her birthday.
When a production assistant pulled her aside and said she needed to leave the room, her heart sank.
“The PA goes, KJ, I need you to leave the room,” she said. “And I was like, oh, did I not get the show? And it was my birthday, y’all. I was like, oh, no, I didn’t get fired on my day off. So I go into this room, and Tyler Perry, six-five, you know, and he’s standing there. He says, KJ, I need to talk to you. And I’m like, oh my gosh, did I mess up? And he goes, I have another show that I think will work for you. Do you want it? And I said, where do I sign?”
The movie came out in March 2019, and just seven months later, in October 2019, Tyler Perry’s Sistas premiered on BET.
That other show had become KJ’s big break, and she was Andi Barnes, the tough, sharp-tongued attorney of the group.
“Okay, so I’ve worked with Tyler before, and I’ve worked on countless other sets, and this was totally nothing I’ve ever done before,” she said. “It was a whole other level. It was like theater. It’s like if you make a mistake, you either just keep moving past it, or you don’t make mistakes. He leveled me up, because it was like, no, we don’t have time for mistakes. So we were pounding the pavement seven days a week. We were rehearsing, studying. When we got off work, we were rehearsing, FaceTiming. I talked to these girls all the time. He forced me to level up, and I really appreciate it. He’s changed all of our lives.”
Almost overnight, strangers knew her face, and that came with a weight she was not ready for.
“I had to call my therapist,” she said. “I had locked myself in my hotel room. I was shooting another show, and I locked myself in the hotel room for a week and I just didn’t come out. I ordered food. I literally didn’t leave my hotel. Nobody knows this kind of stuff, but I just had food delivered and I locked myself in a hotel because I was like, I cannot see people. I feel like the world was closing in on me. So I called my therapist and she helped me. She was like, you’re doing too much. You have to take these things off your plate. You have to have a day to yourself.”
Because the fear underneath the fame was older than the fame.
“For me, my story was I was so poor for so long,” she said. “I had a ten-year journey. I had a ten-year journey, and so I was so poor. Like, I don’t even know how else to describe it. Eating ramen, the stuff that people tell you, on the brink of homelessness, all that stuff. And so you’re like, I have to keep working. I have to keep working. If I turn down this job, I’ll never work again. If I don’t say yes, I’ll never be able to do this ever again. So it was really hard when Sistas came out and everything started happening.”
Then came 2020, and one trip changed her life.
At the airport, the cast was getting ready to load up for season two, and she was recording the experience on her phone when she saw a man she did not recognize.
“I was like, we’re ready for season two and I’m with this guy,” she said. “What’s your name? And he said, I’m Sky. I said, who do you play? And he said, Jacoby. And I said, well, what do you do this season? And he said, I come in and I show up. My heart went do-do-do-do.”
Nothing happened right away.
Months later, she made the first move.
“We ended up following each other on Instagram, and I found out that he had booked his own show where he was the lead,” she said. “So I was congratulating him. And just on general principle, I had already vowed to not talk to anybody, like any man at all. I had vowed all these things. I wasn’t going to date, celibacy, all that. So I genuinely was like, yo, congratulations. I’m proud of you. You were great on our show, and I’m happy that you were able to get this opportunity.”
Here is how that went.
“And he was like, yeah, you know, call me,” she said. “And I’m very direct. I’m about my business. So he was like, call me. So I called him right then and there. He sent me his number, I called him right then and there. The same day that I sent him a DM, he sent me his number, and we talked for like three hours. Now, that was when I was like, oh, he’s the one. Period.”
There was just one problem.
“We weren’t supposed to, because there’s a no-fraternization policy at work,” she said. “But we were in season two of the show, and it was a very scary time, because it was when we were the first production to go back after COVID happened. And so we all had our masks on.”
So they kept it quiet for a long time.
Sky proposed in Miami in front of both of their families, and on September 3, 2023, they were married in Malibu, with Tyler Perry among the guests.
Getting married also brought a hard conversation with her own family.
“People see this side of it, but I struggled for fifteen years,” she said. “I struggled for a long time. And I told my mom and my sister around the wedding time. I was like, I feel like you’re not there for me. And she confronted me about that. She said, you know, I feel like you pushed us away. You never communicated what you were going through, and then when we would try to be there for you, you would push us away. And you know what I said to her? I said, you know what? You’re right. This is not my first time hearing that criticism. I’m sorry. I’m going to own that. And I have to hold myself accountable for my role in you not being there for me. I didn’t tell you my needs. I did not communicate to you, and I’m sorry.”
Their first real test as a couple came from Sky’s side of the family, and it was a medical miracle that reminded them how fragile everything is.
“During COVID, my brother-in-law had a trick in his throat, and then he flatlined,” she said. “And the doctors literally told my husband, everybody, like, you guys, there’s nothing else we can do for him. And he ended up making a full recovery.”
So they started trying for a baby, and that is where the story takes a turn.
“I went to a fertility specialist, and he ran all the tests,” she said. “Sky and I, at some point, we were going to fertilize the eggs. We were going to do in vitro. And for my insurance, I had to get proof that the doctor feels like it’s necessary and appropriate. And so he ran all the tests, and when he sent me the records, it said, you know, status, infertile. And I had never seen that on paper. I had never seen that. It was so finite. I had been told because I have PCOS that it was a possibility. And so, I guess subconsciously, I was living my life as though I would never have kids, and I was like, oh, I’m going to be single forever. I felt like I would be single. I felt like I wasn’t going to have kids.”
And the timing made it worse.
“So I called them. I said, I need the medical records,” she said. “They sent me the medical records in December while he’s at work. So I get the records in December, cry my eyes out by myself. I’m not going to bother him at work. I’m definitely not going to tell him that.”
And underneath the tears, there was a fear she had never said out loud.
“You know, I kind of felt like I had disappointed my husband, because I felt like we went into it hopeful,” she said. “I had forgotten, like, oh, you didn’t even plan kids before you, but then I also felt like, I’m sorry. I wanted to apologize to him. I’m sorry that I can’t have your children. I’m sorry about that, because I don’t want you to think I led you on, because that wasn’t my intent, but I don’t think I can have kids.”
Then came the new year.
“I got sick at the top of the year in January,” she said. “January 1st of 2025, I was sick. And I was sick that whole week. January 19th, that’s when I found out I was pregnant. So I didn’t get around to telling him, like they told me. By the time I told him, it was post our celebration of me being pregnant. So it didn’t affect him in the way that it affected me, because I was like, they told me I wasn’t going to have a baby. He was like, what? I was like, oh, yeah, I forgot to tell you. Like, this is what they said.”
That summer, she sat down with her friend Krystal Renee Hasslett and talked about the pregnancy.
“Because I tried to control, I don’t know why, girl, amateur hour,” she said. “But I couldn’t control it, and I was like, wait, that’s not the plan. I’m supposed to get pregnant in April, or after my birthday, May 6th. But God was like, no, it’s on my time. And I have learned the lesson. I’m tired of relearning that lesson. Everything is on God’s time, and I’m tired of trying to control.”
Then came the delivery, and here is how she tells it.
“When my water had broken and I was losing blood, I was scared, and my intuition said, you need to get to a hospital,” she said. “I called Tyler Perry, and I said, Tyler, of course I wasn’t as calm as I am now. I said, something’s wrong. I need to get to a hospital right now, and I can’t wait in a waiting room. I cannot go through the rigmarole of any of that. I need your help. Tyler was in the middle of the ocean, and he said, give Sky the phone. I don’t know what they discussed. I don’t know what happened, but in five minutes, all of my best friends, twenty-five-year friendships, and my mom and my sister and my family were loading into the Suburban headed to the emergency room.”
Between the time she called Tyler and the time she reached the emergency room, it was thirty minutes, and her child’s heart rate had dropped significantly.
She almost lost her life, and her child’s life, and Tyler made the phone call so that she could go where she needed to go and live.
On Sway’s Universe, she talked about the delivery again.
“I won’t go into too much detail, but I had a traumatic experience, and I had to get rushed to the hospital to have an emergency C-section because of my health care worker,” she said. “I still, if I’m being honest with everyone, I still haven’t processed it. I don’t even talk about it in therapy because I’m just not there. There’s so many other things that I can talk about.”
Her daughter arrived safely, but the hard part was not over.
Later, she opened up to BET about what came next.
“I experienced postpartum,” she said. “I had her in October. She’s going on four months now, and my postpartum, I’m still experiencing it. I’m not going to make it seem like it’s some temporary thing. Postpartum depression has been in my life since I had my daughter. It’s not something I can control like I thought I could. My interviews before pregnancy, I was like, I’m just going to control the things I can control. I’m going to do meal prep, and my mom is moving in with us, and I just knew that I had taken all the steps to make sure I never get postpartum. My therapist is on call. And it hit me like a brick.”
On another podcast, she talked about those first weeks at home.
“I had a really hard postpartum, mentally, physically, because I had an emergency C-section,” she said. “And so my mom was essentially my night nurse from night one. So the sleepless nights and things like that, I didn’t necessarily experience in that way because my mom was there.”
And that brings us to the name, and to Andi.
In that same conversation, Krystal Renee had a question for her, and somewhere in the middle of the answer, KJ gave something away.
“I completely lost myself,” she said. “I was trying to be what people wanted me to be. I played this attorney on television. So I wanted to make sure I was always pulled up and articulate, and I wouldn’t sit like this. I would be poised. And I would change my voice and I would shift. I was a Southern girl from Tallahassee, Florida. And yes, I’ve done the articulation classes and things like that, but that girl is still there, and the bass in my voice is still there.”
Months later, on the same show, she kept going.
“Yeah, that’s my girl. I love Andi,” she said. “I would not have changed if I didn’t play Andi. I would not have changed, because I was stubborn, I was stuck in my ways. I took pride in my trauma, I took pride in my victimhood, I took pride in, oh, pride, that’s my baby’s name. I really took pride in the drama of my life, and all of it had become cyclical.”
Her full name is Pride Chenae Black, born October 4, 2025.
And ask KJ about motherhood now, and she does not hold back.
“You know, God has given me this baby, and I’m like, I’m a master now,” she said. “I’m a master at taking care of and nurturing and loving on. I am a better person because of her. I am changing, because I’m stubborn. Victoria, I’m very stubborn. But when she came into my life, I said, I have to make these changes. I have to do purpose instead of performance. I have to lean into who I truly am. I can’t hide anymore. I can’t fake anymore. I can’t run anymore.”
Today, KJ Smith Black is forty-one, a wife, a new mother, and still Andi on Sistas, ten seasons in.
When she counts up what that one role has given her, the list is short, and it is everything.
“I thank Andi every day for changing so much of my life,” she said. “She’s changed my whole, I mean, without Andi, I wouldn’t have met my husband. I would not have had my baby. I would not have been afforded the opportunity to retire my mother. She’s everything. I love her, and she’s still teaching me lessons.”
The medical record said infertile.
The hospital monitor said the heart rate was dropping.
The phone call said help is coming.
And the baby’s name says everything about the woman who wrote it down.
Pride.
Because the girl who got beat up in Tallahassee and learned how to fight, the woman who ate ramen for ten years and locked herself in a hotel room when the world got too loud, the actress who almost lost everything in a thirty-minute window on the worst night of her life, finally found the one word that described what she had been carrying all along.
Not shame.
Not fear.
Pride.
