Life with la toya
la toya jackson’s no stranger to the spotlight. she’s part of showbiz’s first family – the jacksons – and she’s been on stage and tv since she was 16. but 58-year-old la toya hasn’t had an easy life and she’s not afraid to open up about her struggles on life with la toya (2013-current).
her mom katherine was a jehovah’s witness and young la toya would join her mom as she went door to door, preaching the word of jehovah. la toya says that this practice helped her get over her extreme shyness. she wanted to become an attorney specialising in business law. but after just a few months at college in 1974, her dad joe insisted that la toya drop out and join the entertainment industry. she posed topless for playboy magazine in 1989 and that same year was kicked out of the jehovah’s witnesses. her controlling dad forced la toya to marry her then-manager jack gordon in 1989. she ran out the chapel three times, only to be stopped by her bodyguards each time. “there are somethings you have to do, even if you don’t want to,” she recalls being told. she asked for a divorce six months later, only to be brutally assaulted by gordon. soon after, he confiscated her passport, moved her bank accounts to his name and banned her from contacting her family. she only managed to escape from gordon in 1996 after he tried to force her to take part in pornography. she has a phobia of cats and once locked herself in a car when a cat walked down the street. she has a milkshake named after her at la dessert spot million of milkshakes. the la toya jackson shake has strawberries, raspberries, caramel, whipped cream and a flake chocolate. since filming the first season of life with la toya, she’s gotten engaged to the show’s producer jeffre phillips. jeffre popped the question in hawaii in august 2013.