The Breakfast Club - Custody and Celebrity (Loren talks kids of celebs, Jamie Fox reflects)

Episode Date: June 18, 2025

Loren is back talking about productivity before the Holiday so Juneteenth can be for Celebrating Blackness. Also, Joshua and Jodie’s custody battle brings up some important discussions around raising interracial kids as well as communicating healthily through divorce. Jamie Fox caps it off with a unique discussion around celebrity and social media.YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@BreakfastClubPower1051FMSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart podcast. I'm the homegirl that knows a little bit about everything and everybody. You hear that exclusive? You don't feel like you're gonna lie about that, right? Lauren came in hot. Hey guys, it's Lauren LaRosa and this is another episode of The Latest with Lauren LaRosa. I'm your homegirl that knows a bit about everything and everybody. And this is your daily dig on all things pop culture, entertainment news,

and the conversations that shake the room. Lowriders, you know, I'm your host. I'm Lauren LaRosa. And checking in behind the scenes of the grime today, I am feeling productive. I'm getting a lot done today. It is midweek. You guys know heading into a holiday Juneteenth there's always anticipation because you don't have to work you get you know Spend time with your family spend time doing things that you typically don't have time to do during the week So for me, I was like, okay, being at this holiday is in the middle of the week.

I wanna try and get as much done as I can prior to the holiday so I can actually spend the holiday like a holiday. Yes, y'all know me, so I will still be working. We will still have podcasts, episodes, all the things, right? But the full bulk of feeling like my day is dedicated so much to other people and work, work, work, work, work, work, work is not what I want to be doing on Juneteenth.

I want to be celebrating, you know, being black, being, you know, all things black girl, you know what I mean? Just honestly, just taking the time to just decompress and celebrate like Juneteenth has become such a holiday since the world decided to act like black people are the shit because we have been. And y'all know I don't custom the podcast but I feel like that customer was necessary. But it has become such a holiday when I was living in LA every year for Juneteenth, we would go to the huge block party barbecue that they do in LA, but in Inglewood. But since being in New York, I feel like I haven't had the chance

to actually celebrate Juneteenth, which I've really tried to prioritize to do because it just feels good. You outside, you with your people, you got the music playing. For some reason, every time I think about Juneteenth, I think about the song, Sounds of Blackness. As long as you keep that song, y'all know that song. Hopefully y'all know that song. If you do not know that song, let me look it up. I want y'all to know that song because that is my Juneteenth theme song.

And I don't know if that's very cliche. I honestly don't care because Cause that is my song. That is my go-to for Juneteenth. What is it? It's called, oh yes. It's Sounds of Blackness by Optimistic. Yes, Sounds of Blackness by Optimistic is my Juneteenth go-to song.

That and I'm black y'all, I'm black y'all. And you just wake up, you go to the cookout see everywhere you go. It's just I mean, every day is a celebration of being who you are and being black. But Juneteenth, it just feels like the whole world is stopping to do it. So I've been getting a lot of things done. Been very disciplined about getting things done by a certain time, getting my sleep in being prepared for all the things. So I'm feeling good. If you guys cannot tell, I'm, I feel like I sound like things are organized

and they're flowing as well too. So I hope you all are feeling well out there as well. And y'all know now we gotta get into the latest. You know, your girl love to take y'all to court. So I saw this story and I thought that it was really, really interesting. I honestly, I was like, man, I wish more people were, were, you know, diving into this conversation.

So it's been reported by Us Weekly, the Grio, and Essence Magazine that actress Jodie Turner Smith has pinned a letter to her ex-husband Joshua Jackson who was also an actor and this letter is a letter that comes in the midst of their custody battle. Now for those who are not familiar with Jodie Turner-Smith you guys will know her probably most notably from Queen and Slim. Joshua Jackson also an actor. I watched him in the affair but I know a lot of people who also know him from Dawson's

Creek as well and the Mighty Ducks. So they were married. They were married for some time. They actually got a divorce and their divorce was finalized back in May of 2025. But you know, their custody battle, their battle in the midst of this, even though their divorce is finalized, has been one that has made news headlines, which is why I was so confused when I saw this letter that didn't pick up more. Not that I care that it didn't pick up because that's what I love about the podcast

is that we can dive into conversations that other people might not be having. But I was just very surprised because everything with their divorce has been so like, people pick it up like insanely because that's how it was about their relationship as well too. So she following their divorce in May of 2025, it was decided that their divorce would break down to Joshua Jackson paying $2,787 a month in child support. And then there was a lump sum of sponsor support that was paid out as well.

But within the last month, there's been reports of Joshua Jackson and Jodie Turner Smith going back and forth about things like their daughter. And their daughter is young. Their daughter is five years old. Well, some places report she's four, but some places report she's five.

But she's young. Their daughter is under nine years old and they've been going back and forth about where she's going to go to school and just what custody looks like between the two of them because they're both really involved parents. So Jodie Smith Turner's letter is about the role of a mother in a child's life, especially a girl, a young girl, especially when you're dealing with two parents who are now separated. More specifically, she's talking about the role of a black mother in a biracial child's

life, especially a biracial daughter. So the letter starts, hi Josh, thank you for your message. I appreciate your recognition of how fluid the production timeline can be. Your willingness to accommodate the fluidity truly makes a difference. And when she talks about production timeline, she's talking about a show that she's shooting. So then she goes on,

I'm also so glad that we agree that our shared goal is to provide Juno with as much stability, consistency and meaningful time with both of us as possible. I hear and appreciate your point that that is ultimately her time with both of us as possible. I hear and appreciate your point that that is ultimately her time with each of us and not the other way around. The framing feels very important. This arrangement allows Juno to enjoy a true sense

of continuity and presence, something we both value. She's excited about our travel plans and I believe this stretch of time will allow her to feel deeply grounded and connected during a season that's naturally more open and flexible. Now again, I mentioned that all of this is happening in the midst of them having these like custody conversations, right? And more recently when it was about a month ago when reports came out that they were having issues over determining a schooling determination between the two of them and then the custody, the conversation with custody was about their daughter Juno's summer

schedule and like where she would spend her time summer, how that time will be broken down and what she would be doing. So Jody continues, I want to raise the subject as something that has been weighing heavily on me and is grounded not just in instinct or emotion, but in widely established research. Before Juno was born, you and I spoke at length about what she would need to grow into a strong, self-assured young person. Central to those conversations was the importance of the maternal bond and more specifically the critical role that being close to her Black mother would play in shaping her identity and self-esteem. Research consistently shows that for biracial children, particularly with a black mother, that connection

is not peripheral. It is foundational. It plays a vital role in identity formation, emotional resilience, and a long term physical well-being. These aren't abstract ideas. They've lived daily realities that Juno is already beginning to experience. And the consistency of our time together, especially when school is out, and there's space for deeper connection is one of the most effective ways to support her through them. The vision we once shared hasn't changed,

and it begins here, and ensuring that Juno is not only protected, but affirmed, reflected, and deeply rooted in who she is. So I wanna talk a bit, before we get into, you know, just where, you know, opinion on this letter and, and all the things I want to talk a bit about the custody conversation that I brought up. So according to reports, actually TMZ is the one who broke this story.

There were legal documents that were filed back in May of 2025. It was actually May 3rd. So it was right before Cinco de Mayo of this year. And in the filing, Joshua Jackson and Jodie were figuring out more the divorce settlement, but specifically they had to use a mediator to come up with a temporary schedule to figure out what the 50-50 custody would look like with their daughter.

Now here's what they can agree on. So they agreed where Juno is gonna go to school eventually. Like they got to that agreement, right? And that was a part of the report. So that was one of the things that they could not figure out. So in this most recent filing, they were able to agree on that. And then after that, Jodie was asking for a judge to force Joshua to adhere to a court order that gives her the power to pick elementary school. So it's more so about where she's going to adhere to a court order that gives her the power to pick elementary school. So it's more so about where she's going to go to school next. And the issue is that Jodi is basically asking for their daughter Juno to go to a new school next year. But she says that Joshua

Jackson is not having that. Like he's sitting in the way of that. Now she says that she's researched this new school. She talked about it with Joshua Jackson and made sure it was close enough to his home as well. But he's refusing to get on board now. So that's the school situation. So baby girls in school, the school she's at currently is fine. It's about where she's going next. As far as the summer schedule, uh, Jodie Turner is actually wanting to spend five weeks with her daughter in Europe, where she said will allow their daughter Juno to enjoy a true sense of continuity and presence, which is what I was referencing, something that they both value.

But Joshua Jackson is pushing back against this because he's saying it would leave him without seeing his daughter for at least a month. Now Jodie is also asking that their daughter Juno, you know, within these travel plans, be able to stay with her in Morocco while she's working there. That is the production schedule they were referencing. But Joshua is sending, he sent those down with saying, we need to have a meaningful conversation about this because any travel arrangements involving their daughter, including the location, the schedule and all these things, he wants to have a conversation about it before he makes actual decision.

And Jodie has actually said to him as well, like, look, I know it's summertime, so if you have specific travel plans or anything that you want to do, just let me know so that we can talk about it ahead of time. But I do want you to talk to me about it before you take it to our daughter because you know, it's like once you tell a kid something and she says this and Jodie Turner says this in her documents that she filed. She says, you know, once you tell a kid something, then it causes confusion and it causes disappointment and I don't want that. Now I'm listen, I understand Jodie's point.

You know, Jodie Turner. I understand her point, right? Because I'm look, I'm not biracial. Both my parents are black. I mean, as you guys can tell. But I hope she doesn't mind me telling the story. She knows who I'm talking about. She's listening to the podcast, but I have a biracial friend who I got really, really close

to when I was living in LA. And until I got close to her, I didn't even understand, nor did I think that there was like a struggle or a world of things that biracial children went through. I remember one time we were in a grocery store and we were leaving the grocery store and we pulled out in a grocery store and we were leaving the grocery store and we pulled out of the grocery store and there was a woman who was pulling in to take our spot. And then

there was another car waiting behind us. And the way that we backed up, the woman wasn't able to get into the spot. So the car behind us was able to pull in. So as we're going around the woman and it's a white woman, she yells the N word out of the window. And oh my God, it, like, I mean, I was like, whatever, old white lady, whatever. It pissed my friend off so bad. And I was like, yo, why do you care so much about this woman that you don't even know? You know what I mean?

Like we're in the car, you don't know this woman. Obviously she's mad about the park, especially she's gonna say anything you make you mad. I've learned to just let ignorant people be ignorant because I've dealt with it and I know who I am. So I know I'm not the N word with a R-E-R. You know what I mean? I know I'm an educated, beautiful black woman.

Like it's different. But when I say it pissed her off, it pissed her off to the point where we had to pull over for her to gather herself and get herself together. Like she was crying, she was emotional. It was a whole thing. And as I'm talking to her, I'm realizing like, wow, like her identity of self when it comes to her as a black woman, because she has a black parent and a white parent, it's not as strong,

like anything can kind of shake her. And it's because she grew up not as close to her black side of her family. So the black identity that she did have and that she gained from friends and school and community, whenever that was like tested or questioned, no matter how big or how small, the way that it would throw her off, I'd never experienced anything like it. And I think, and I even think once we began to talk about it

more, I'm like, yo, why did that bother? I get it, it's racial and anybody hearing that is going to bother them. But it's sad to say, but it's like, I mean, letting ignorant people be ignorant is just a thing that I've it's kind of like not a coping mechanism, but it's just one of those things. It's things it's like the same way when I walk into a store, my first thing is, let me not bring big bags in here because I don't want them to think I'm stealing. Whereas another person who don't look like me or who is white passing does not have to think about that type of stuff. It's just something that I know to do.

So for me, let ignorant people be ignorant. Unless it's right in my face and I, you know what I mean? Like that's different, but we're in a car, we're pulling off, it's whatever. But in talking to her, what I learned and what I realized was that anytime her black side of anything was questioned, she wasn't sure about it enough to stay firm in, I'ma just let ignorant people be ignorant, because I know that's not how I identify. She couldn't stand in that because it wasn't instilled

in her from her black side of her family. So she's never fully been able to like identify with that. And the closest thing in proximity she has to identifying with it is what she's taught herself. It didn't come from a place of love or from people who love her and not even from people who love her because you know, as a friend, I love her like that type of thing, but not from her mother or like, you know as her friend I love her like that type of thing but not from her mother or like you know someone that's more like the like maternal or nurturing in her life so it just in her experience and walking through the world was so different and she was always not black enough for the black kids and not white enough for the white kids right so she's always been trying to figure out where the identity lied

and what she identified with the most right which words which was her black side because of her friends and her school she went to and all those things. She had an adopted mom who raised her, um, who was also black, but again, it's different. It's not your, it's not your natural, like it's not your, your mom who birthed you. So there's just all these questions that she's trying to figure out. I tell you guys this story to say that I realized in that moment and being friends with her and in that particular moment that there was just something different about being raised to know that as a black person in this world or as a black specifically a black woman in this world to know your brilliance and to know your just your wholeness and where that comes from, like who teaches it to you and how you get to know it is such an important thing.

And it's a everyday thing in a black household and it's something that we don't even think twice about as we're raising children or, you know, me being the child of a mother who was black. But when I began having conversations with my biracial friend and I began to realize that like she didn't have that study like to stand on two feet about that. It was and it was because of what she lacked in her upbringing. When I read this letter and this letter is a couple days

old as well. So it's been out, you know, not this letter, but the letter that was included in the filing is a couple of days old. So it's been out. Um, when I read it, I'm like, man, I can really, like I hear her and I understand her. Now, whether or not Joshua Jackson will understand her, because at the end of the day, no matter how much, you know, empathy a person that is not black has for us and what we need and how we need to be poured into in order to navigate in the world, no matter how much of that you have, it's still different being a black man raising a black child with a black woman versus being a white man raising a child with a black woman. So whether he's going to fully understand that or not is one thing.

And we'll see how this plays out. And I think that it is so evolved for, even though their relationship didn't work out for them to even be having those conversations because it is a real thing. Wishing them the best. We will, you know, I'll stay abreast to, you know, the filings and kind of what happens and where they land. Cause it seems like he's not being just hard

about her request for no reason. It's just a, it's a parental thing. It's like a, hey, I understand all of that, but I'm her father too. He even says in one of the documents that he says, I don't think that on location tutoring can approximate the importance of what Juno has received by attending school and being in a consistent peer environment this year. Her social and emotional development and her academic achievement this year have been truly

extraordinary and, and this is him responding in, in basically saying like, you know, as she's traveling, like, yes, it's amazing. She'll get to learn these things. She'll get to be with you. But as school finishes and we want to nurture her, you know, socially and academically still throughout the summer as she prepares to go back into school, traveling and not having that peer-to-peer consistency, it could interfere. And tutoring is different than being in school and being with our friends and all those things.

It seems like they're trying to accommodate for the lives that they live as celebrities, but he's also reminding Jodi, there is a level of consistency and normalcy that you want to provide for a child as well too. Let me know what you think about the conversation. I think that is definitely one worth having, especially as we go into Juneteenth celebrating

all of the blackness and all these things. And that's so ironic. I didn't even tie the two together when I was prepping this, but it's ironic how they both tied together talking about celebrating Juneteenth and everything that is your blackness that day and every day, but that day specifically, and then this story. Now, as we head on out of here in the latest, we have Jamie Foxx. Jamie Foxx sat down for this really interesting interview with BET. He was honored at BET. He received an Icon Award for his legacy, his career, all of the

things during the 2025 BET Awards, which was amazing to see. You guys know I was in LA for the award show, but there was an interview that released. I watched the interview yesterday and it was such a great interview. Jamie Foxx talked about everything from, you know, who taught him, he talked about Harry Belafonte teaching him how to be a black man, and what that responsibility looked like. He talked about, do you even have to have responsibility as a black person or as a black entertainer? He talked about, you know, just his abilities and doing the things that he's able to do and his career and all of the things.

But he brought up one thing that I thought was very interesting. He talked about social media and just being famous right now and how it is so different than when he got started and what he wished for. I tell people all the time, this is be careful what you wish for. Because I'm a gregarious dude and I just want to have fun and sometimes people will take advantage of that.

Especially in today's world now where you know you got to be careful. Everything is looked at, everything is scrutinized. So I do a thing in my new stand up. I'm going out on a new stand up called a victory lap. Okay. Yeah. On Hulu. But I talk about how fame is not necessarily fun anymore. Back in the day, fame was cool.

You know what I'm saying? But now, you know, it's kind of, it's tough, you know? And what's crazy is everything that you're doing could be negated in one post. This conversation was unique coming from a Jamie Foxx because Jamie Foxx is a part of that celebrity group who he still remembers what it was like to be famous pre social media, but he is a huge celebrity so he can't escape life post social media either. When Jamie Foxx was

going through his health battle I remember being at TMZ and you know one of the things that you learn in the newsroom about developing exclusives and working on stories is do you always find the angle in? Whenever you blocked out one way you find the angle in another way and I've worked on many stories from TMZ to now in my career with the Breakfast Club and, you know, in trying to find angles and find ways into stories, a bit less invasive at the Breakfast Club, thank God. But in trying to find my way into these different stories, I still come up on roadblocks where I'm like, okay, what's another way in? Can I, you know, if the attorney don't want to talk, what about the publicist? What about the manager? What

about the whatever? Jamie Foxx, when he was going through his health scare, when I tell y'all we couldn't find no way in, we like everything was shut down. His family did a really good job of protecting him through that and making sure that not too much slips. There were certain things that still got out, but they controlled the narrative. We didn't see him. They controlled as much as they could so well. And in a social media time with a name like Jamie Foxx who comes from the real era of celebrities, y'all know how hard that is. So to hear him talk about just thinking of fame one way,

wishing for fame one way, getting it, and then it being so different than what you experience, especially now with social media. I was like, wow, that's very ironic because in all of my career, working the story and reporting the story of Jamie Foxx and what he was going through in his house scare was probably one of the toughest stories that we worked on.

Number one, because it's Jamie Foxx and he's so beloved and we just didn't know what was happening and you want him to be okay. But also, his family held it down. We couldn't get, there was nothing, nothing leaking on social, nothing. So I'm like, for him to complain about it, I'm like, man, it seemed like y'all got it on lock over there.

Like y'all got it down back over there, Jamie Foxx. So I'm not even gonna lie, y'all definitely do. I've experienced it firsthand. But I think there is a point to what he's talking about though. It's like, even when he mentioned the, you know, like one post and everything you've worked for could just be negated.

Like one post on social media and the court of public opinion can cause a downfall of so many different things. That is like the scariest part of a lot of the things that I'm experiencing today in this time. And I look at people like Jamie Foxx and Gabrielle Union and Taraji P. Henson and all of these major, oh my God, Kerry Washington. There's so many major names that I look to. I think Anne Hathaway does

a really good job of being present on social media, but you won't really know too much of her business. There are a lot of celebrities that I look at and I'm like, they do a really good job of still remaining that mystique of I'm a celebrity, you can't know everything and I'm not gonna give you everything, but still using social media to a point where you feel connected with them.

Kerry Washington owned Twitter during the scandal days, but we knew nothing about her personal life until she told us. Those type of, you type of celebrities in that age of celebrity, it's like the younger the celebrities get, the more that dies out. It's disappearing. And it's nerve wracking a bit,

especially as things are growing for me myself, but it's also nerve wracking a bit too because it causes a whole um, like a whole genre of media and conversation and just noise of people who will do and say anything. And then it's hard to negate through that because there's not a lot of people out here doing a due diligence. I was literally just talking about this the other day, uh, for what I do, not even just here on the podcast, but for Breakfast Club. Like, you know, waking up in the morning, I'm looking through stories,

trying to figure out what to talk about. A lot of times I'm trying to develop my own news or my own angles in, as I just mentioned, exclusives. But when I don't have that, sometimes it's like, okay, let me see what the world is talking about. And I've been feeling like over these last couple of weeks, like, man, so much of this stuff is noise. I'm scared to even report certain things, even if valid.coms are reporting it, because things are just so, things are just so misconstrued. Like, people can paint any narrative they want nowadays

because of social media, and then it makes a.com, or it makes a news report. And that is so scary. And it's just getting worse. So to know that it's still affecting someone as big as a Jamie Foxx, I'm like, man, he's like, Jamie Foxx is like pinnacle entertainers. It's not about being a black entertainer.

He is pinnacle entertainer. Like every, there's nowhere you go that is not gonna know a Jamie Foxx. And he's still being affected by it. I'm like, it's over for the rest of us. We ain't got a shot in H-E double hockey sticks. If Jamie Foxx is feeling like this, it's like, man, what do I have to look forward to? Well, speaking of social media, I'm gonna take you guys outside to the tweets.

outside to the tweets in the streets I tweeted something and when I tell you all the people or am my mentions going crazy like go insane so I want to get y'all take on it right okay so I. So I retweeted this, uh, this tweet. It says T or GZ who had the better first five album run. So they've got T I's I'm serious. T I's trap music, T I self title album, T I T I King and then T I versus tip. There's five T I albums. Then you got GZ. So you have a young GZ, let's get it, Thug Motivation 101,

Young GZ the inspiration, Young GZ the recession, Young GZ, Thug Motivation 103, Hustlers Ambition, and Young GZ, Seen It All, the autobiography. Now I said GZ, and granted, it's hard anytime you talk about GZ and TI in a conversation, especially comparing it to, but just in general, like anytime people bring them up in a competitive way, I think people are always so competitive because these are two artists who literally changed the face of trap music and everything that they've touched.

Like they've culturally influenced and left a mark in a way that you're going to feel so tied to the change that you felt when they were really in the crevices of doing their thing. So I get it. But for me, I don't know. This is not me saying that T.I.'s first five albums wasn't a run, that's not what I'm saying. I just think that GZ's was a better first five album run. Now I wanna know what y'all think

because the people online, they're like, what? So someone said, I'm gonna have to roll with young GZ, Tip set it up though. Then another one said, Lauren, how old are you? Where were you back in these days? Because you wasn't really outside. I could tell by your choice. I was like, whoa.

Then someone else said, I'm going to choose both, but Tip hands down. And then somebody agreed with, oh, somebody just said, you bugging out. Cash24S1 on X said, you bugging out cash to four s one on X said you bugging out will all do respect. I got to respond to that one because that one's kind of funny. Let me know what y'all think though. So this is more about what I want you guys to get on my ex account. I'm Lauren LaRosa on X my post TIGC who had the better first album first five album run.

Let me know what y'all think. Cause I'm not even arguing back with the people. I feel that way because I feel like GZ song, like when you talk about full bodies of work all the way through and again, I'm not taking away from TI. I think it's just a personal choice. I just personally, I can name you multiple songs of multiple, one, multiple, multiple of these albums. Is that how you say the zans? Tell him how to talk. That's how you know the episode is ending. I can name you multiple songs from multiple of these albums because I was maybe too, maybe I'm just a bigger GZ fan. Y'all let me know what y'all think. I think it's a personal choice, personal opinion. I think both

of them were very influential. I think their, you know, first few album run, like I said, it changed the way that we even talk about track music, music from the South. I think they both have done things that you're never gonna forget, sounds that you're never gonna forget, hooks, bars that you're never gonna forget. But personally, it's easy for me. What y'all think?

Let me know. At the end of the day, there is always a lot to talk about. You guys could be anywhere with anybody talking about it, but you choose to be right here with me and I appreciate you guys for that. I'm Lauren LaRosa. I will see you guys in my next episode. This is an iHeart Podcast.