Shanique Talks Forming A Friendship With Rae On Netflix's Ultimatum

Source: The Ultimatum / Netflix

A reality star stunner is speaking about forming a strong bond with a fellow participant on a highly-popular show. As previously reported Shanqiue was a standout on Netflix’s “The Ultimatum” where she put her relationship with her longtime love Randall to the ultimate test.

Source: The Ultimatum / Netflix

The reality star was ready for marriage but her boo of nearly two years was hesitant and cited financial instability as the reason why he hadn’t popped the question.

With that, she issued an ultimatum to Randall and they both had trial marriages with other people to see if they wanted to stay together and move on.

Shanique spent her trial marriage with Zay a hot basketball player who was given an ultimatum by his college sweetheart Rae…

Source: The Ultimatum / Netflix

Source: The Ultimatum / Netflix

and Randall spent his trial marriage with Madlyn, who he quickly connected with despite Madlyn receiving an ultimatum from her ready-for-marriage boyfriend Colby. 

Source: The Ultimatum / Netflix

Source: The Ultimatum / Netflix

Things got rocky…

but in the end, Randall and Shanqiue’s journey ended with Randall popping the question. At the show’s reunion, however, Shanique revealed that they paused the wedding after a 6-month post-show split…

but she recently told BOSSIP that she and Randall are back booed up and he’s “being proactive” and “showing up for her.”

That’s not all she said however, she also shared with BOSSIP that she’s especially happy about forming a friendship with Rae.

Source: The Ultimatum/ Netflix

The two ladies were able to look past both of their experiences with Zay and they’re currently friends despite the admitted “awkwardness” of the situation.

Source: The Ultimatum/ Netflix

See what  Shanique had to say about both Rae and Zay below.

Let’s talk about Rae. I was watching your reunion and you guys are good girlfriends. How is y’all’s friendship? I love that y’all got that out of this.

Yeah. No, for sure. I think that was something that I was very grateful for. Just… It’s awkward…

I’m glad you said it…

It is awkward. You get there and naturally, you are just scoping everyone out. You’re thinking, “Who is my partner going to be attracted to, or who’s going to be attracted to my partner?” Initially, I saw Rae and I’m like, “This is Randall right here.” I was surprised that that didn’t go that way. But obviously, on the reverse end of things, Rae and I did have a connection. We did end up going into the whole trial relationship.

And so I have to give Rae her flowers because I think that it takes an extreme amount of maturity… Take “black woman” out of it. Just being a woman, being a person in general and seeing your partner or the person that you came in there in love with, dating someone else, having whatever experience they’re having, and just having to internalize that and say, “You know what? Regardless of that, I see value in being friends with this person. And that’s what I want to pursue.” I have to give her her flowers for that because that takes a woman. That–takes–a—woman.

She’s actually a very genuine person. She is really, really, really that sweet in real life. So we just instantly connected and we were like, “Yeah, this is a weird experience.” I told her I was thinking about picking Zay before I did. And she was just like, “Okay, here are my things.” And I was like, “All right. We’ve received that.”

And throughout the entire kind of relationship, I would ask her, “Do you want me to share this with you?” And more times than not, she never did. She always was like, “I don’t want you and Zay’s relationship, or whatever your experience was, to overshadow our relationship.” And again, I just have to give her the biggest kudos for that, because that is not easy.

Yeah, that’s mature as hell.

Yeah! She literally was like, “I don’t want to hear about that.” I was trying to tell her stuff and she’s like, “Let’s just go out. Let’s just have fun. Let’s just talk about this instead.” And I think that’s really what makes our relationship special. It really is just about us.

I love that you guys didn’t let your relationship with Zay tarnish the idea of you guys having this friendship that you guys now have. So speaking of Zay, what stood out to you about him when you were going through this experience? Because you also said that also you had an interest in Colby, but ultimately what was it about Zay [that made you choose him]?

So funny thing about it is–I did not like Zay. I did not like Zay from our very first day. He had his shirt open and he was licking his lips, all this stuff. And naturally, I was trying to lean into the whole flirty thing and I would flirt back and whatever. But initially, I was like, “This is definitely giving F-boy energy. I can just tell he thinks he’s big s***, and this does just not go well. This is not going to go well.”

I think the initial reaction was, [me thinking] we’re just not compatible. On, I think it was, our second date, this man was opening up to me and he actually started crying on our second date. And I can remember telling him specifically… He was like, “I’m sorry. I don’t mean to be crying like this. I’m a grown-a** man sitting here crying in front of you.”

And I remember telling him, “You deserve to have a space where you can be vulnerable and you can open up, and you should never be ashamed or feel you can’t be, because you’re a man, all this. And honestly, I would say, especially because you’re a Black man.” There are a lot of things that even in our community we perpetuate, there are a lot of things that I feel enable us to think that Black men aren’t able to be emotional, and I wanted him to know that that was okay. And I think from that moment it was like, “All right, this is a safe space.” And ever since then… He literally started at the bottom of my list. He was at the bottom of the list…

And he crawled his way to the top, my goodness.

I guess I was his number one, so I had to keep going on dates with him. But I think ultimately, it was a good thing that we ended up continuing to see each other. Because I did judge him, just off the first impression, and I think he has a lot more layers to him. And I was able to see that through the experience.

Are you guys in contact at all now, or is that done?

Yeah, that’s a tough one…

 

There’s a lot there. Rae is your girl, obviously, and then obviously, Randall’s your man. It almost sounds like he’s kind of on an island, I feel like that was inevitable.

Yeah, you hit the nail on the head there. There’s too much. It’s too murky. It can really teeter on the line of disrespect if I was to be too friendly. But obviously, with the rollout of the show and everything, we’ve just sent maybe images or something like that back and forth, because we’ve had photos together and stuff like that. So I’m definitely keeping it respectful and at a distance, but honestly, I wish both of them nothing but growth and happiness.

Beautiful. How’s your family? They were so cute and so welcoming to Zay.

Yeah! That’s just how they are, man. It’s almost like, if I bring someone around, I can guarantee they’re going to treat them like they’re one of us! So it’s hard to get rid of any of my friends once I bring them around. But they’re good. They’re good. I think my mom is like, she ain’t playing with none of these negative comments.

 

She’s like, “Not about my baby! Not my daughter!”

Yeah, she’s going into mommy mode. My dad is always my number one supporter. So he’s just overly positive about everything. They’re really good! Grandma Pearl is good [too]. I think they were just happy that they were able to be a part of the experience because they do mean so much to me and are such big parts of my life. They have to be.

Lastly, ultimately, what did you learn from The Ultimatum? I feel like this has to be like looking in a big mirror.

I feel like there was so much, and I’m trying to think of what was the most important. But I guess to sum it all up, I think in every relationship, there’s this idea like, “Well, my intention is to be affirmative. My intention is to show you that I love you. Right? My intention is to show you I care.” Whatever your intention may be, there’s always a line between what your intention is, versus what your impact is. And I think stepping out of myself, literally watching myself, I saw the moments where I knew I was hurt or I knew I felt misunderstood or I knew I just wanted to be reassured, and it came off so ugly.

 

The biggest lesson is just to step out of yourself as much as you possibly can because you’re not dating yourself. No one understands what your faces mean. No one understands… You shouldn’t expect someone to just understand what your body language or whatever may mean. I thought I was so good at communication, and I realized that just because I’m expressive doesn’t mean that I’m communicating it well, because in order for it to be communicated, it has to be received.

So I think that was probably one of the biggest lessons and probably one of the reasons why Randall and I are even able to be at the place that we are now, is just us realizing our communication style is just so different that the only way to make it work is to step outside of ourselves and not only look at what the impact is but maybe what the intention was behind what your partner is trying to get across. It was tough but I definitely say [you should] step out of yourself more, just to understand who you are and who your partner is and where you can be better.

Let us know where we can keep up with you and how we can follow you. 

I am Shanique Imari on every single platform. So just my first and middle name on everything [@ShaniqueImari] on Instagram, TikTok, Twitter. I don’t do Snapchat but you can find me on Vimeo as well. But yeah, just Shanique Imari. Just me.

“The Ultimatum” produced by Kinetic Content is currently streaming on Netflix.