Wayne Brady’s unconventional family is the real deal, and they’re giving us all a front row seat

By Lisa Respers France, CNN

(CNN) — Wayne Brady is not done sharing about his personal life.

The multi-hyphenate star is set to open up in a new reality series titled “Wayne Brady: The Family Remix,” which focuses on his unconventional family that includes his ex-wife and business partner Mandie Taketa, their college-aged daughter Maile and Taketa’s life partner, Jason Fordham.

The “core four,” as they are known, have been entertaining people on TikTok with their dancing and antics, but the new series will show a different side to this very modern Brady bunch.

It’s been a long time coming, Brady told CNN in a recent interview, adding that he had “already had interest in our family a few times to write sitcoms and we’d had scripts.”

But he said his clan felt “frustrated” by what was being pitched.

“What is it that you just saw with us as this blended family of color that made you write this on the paper? Because none of this really represents a black or Asian or mixed person authentically,” Brady shared. “It was always through someone else’s lens.”

Brady and his family instead decided to do an unscripted series to show the real deal. Everyone was fully on board, including 21-year-old Maile.

“I love hanging out with my parents,” she said. “I’d like to think that we have really great individual relationships and I spend so much time with them. Like over my friends from college, like over my peers, I am hanging out with my mom and my dad.”

Brady and Taketa married in 1999, divorced less than a decade later and are still best friends. As close as they are, viewers of the show will learn about Brady’s initial struggle accepting Taketa’s relationship with Fordham, who was a former dancer in Brady’s Las Vegas show.

They are well past that early tension now though, and Fordham is excited for people to see how the family functions, even though he points out that “with a show like this, life does get condensed a little bit.”

“We’re really living our lives,” Fordham shared. “I love us and I love spending time with us, and most of the time I’m just sitting back laughing. I’m not even saying anything.”

And while he may not say as much as the other three, everyone does get to have their say on this new show – even if the conversations aren’t always easy.

“We all do the work, we all go to therapy. We’re all kind of like, ‘What is it about myself that contributes to this problem?,’” Taketa said. “And that’s scary, but that’s what I require in my family.”

“So I hope people take that away,” she added. “Love yourself enough to expect the most from the people around you.”

That level of vulnerability can also sometimes lead to the phenomenon known as the “reality show curse,” where people’s lives and relationships have been ruined by allowing cameras into their personal spaces. Is the Brady family at all concerned about that?

They said they weren’t even aware that was a thing.

“I was kind of hoping the show would get me a relationship,” Maile Brady joked.

“Wayne Brady: The Family Remix” debuts Wednesday on Freeform.

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