'Hopelessly In Love' Exposes The Troubles In The Relationship Of TLC’s Left Eye And Andre Rison (Video)

January 14. 2020

This past weekend I watched the Lifetime network show “Hopelessly In Love.” Season 1 Episode 1 featured the late Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes of the girl group TLC and her ex-boyfriend, professional athlete, Andre Rison. He played American football for the Atlanta Falcons, among other NFL teams.

Rison, who was a friend of the late rapper Tupac, met Lisa at an Atlanta night club. At the time TLC had taken off, but the girls really had very little money, due to the accounting and contractual practices of Arista/BMG. However, Rison was already a millionaire.

Andre and Lisa began talking at the night club and he invited her back to his dream home, a mansion he had recently purchased in Atlanta’s Country Club of the South. In the documentary, Rison explained they left the club separately and Lisa went to where she was staying at the time to collect her things. Andre stayed Lisa moved into his home the very night she met him and never left. Andre’s sister, who did not like Lisa, stated the same in the documentary.  

Lisa took a big risk moving in with a man she had met only hours earlier. It’s not a good idea for women or men to do that. It was the beginning of a volatile relationship. While the two really did seem to love each other, they had massive fights and his family viewed her as a gold digger, who was a threat to his career.

Andre even bought her a brand new Mercedes, so she would stop driving the used truck she parked in his driveway. Lisa was definitely living off Andre. She saw him as a quick route to the luxury lifestyle she saw the owners of LaFace Records living, which is the label that she was signed to with TLC.

Lisa Lopes and Andre Rison

Prior to Lisa, Andre never experienced bad publicity. He was only known for his sporting talent. His mother wanted him to focus on his career and not a woman moving in with him, whom he was spending a lot of money on.

Andre revealed Lisa had miscarriages while they were together. The two were also arguing often and sometimes in public, which ended up in the press in a very negative manner. During one incident, Andre threatened to shoot two people, who intervened in an argument he was having with Lisa in a parking lot.

Lisa believed Andre was cheating (and based on what was said in the documentary he was doing so). Then, Andre believed Lisa was cheating with rapper Tupac. Lisa denied it but he never believed her denials. In trying to make him jealous, Lisa stayed out all night with her friends. However, Andre believing she was with Tupac, claiming he saw her get in his limo, cheated on her again. She returned to his home to find him naked in the bedroom with another woman.

It sparked a terrible argument. They arguments between the couple grew worse. Due to the suspected cheating and Andre going shopping for shoes and not buying her anything, Lisa lit some of Andre’s belongings on fire in a bathtub of his home (the second time she’d done so in a jealous rage). However, this time Andre had replaced the marble tub with an acrylic unit, which Lisa did not know when setting the fire that ended up being the catalyst that engulfed and destroyed the property this time around. The fire was terrible and in a very upscale Atlanta neighborhood.

Lisa was arrested and sent to a diversionary center, which is like a jail, for 3-months. While in the diversion center she engaged in self-harm, carving the word “hate” on her arm. Lisa had mental problems due to growing up in a household with a physically abusive father, who beat her mother. He was also rough on Lisa and her siblings.

As a teen, Lisa had become obsessed with the Farrah Fawcett film “the Burning Bed” about a physically abused wife, who fights her husband back and sets their house on fire. It was another example of why you should not imitate the dangerous and unlawful things you see in films. Imitating “the Burning Bed” landed Lisa behind bars. She was also hit with 5-years probation and a fine. Not to mention, burning down Rison’s home greatly damaged her reputation.

After all of the chaos and court appearances, Andre still took Lisa back. Only for her to move in with Suge Knight, in the same manner she had moved in with him years prior, showing up on the label boss' doorstep with her belongings.

In an interview with VLAD TV, one of TLC's music producers, Dallas Austin, stated the group’s founder and manager, Pebbles, did not want the girls getting a reputation for sleeping around in the entertainment industry, because it's difficult for women in the business. However, that’s exactly what they were doing and it brought them trouble and heartbreak.

Lisa was in love with Tupac and Andre, attempting to juggle both men. Chilli was having sex with music producer Dallas, got pregnant and was kicked out of the group by Pebbles. Chilli was also cheating with Pebbles husband L.A. Reid, which is how she was placed in Pebbles’ group in the first place.

Chilli stated she had an abortion due to wanting to get back into TLC and blamed it all on Pebbles, who did not tell her to abort her unborn child. However, in the interview with VLAD TV, Dallas stated Chilli had a miscarriage, due to stress he blamed on Pebbles kicking her out of the group.

Which one of them is correct. In the TLC made-for-cable biopic, which resulted in a lawsuit by Pebbles, filed against VH-1/Viacom over defamation and 15 falsehoods placed in the film by the group, the movie gave the world the impression Pebbles pushed Chilli into an abortion. However, Dallas later revealed to VLAD TV, Pebbles didn’t even know Chilli had a miscarriage.

While TLC member Tionne was not known for being promiscuous, later dating Jodeci music group member Mr. Dalvin for years, she had troubles as well. Years later, her marriage to rapper Mack-10 was a sad one, where she was physically abused by him and it ended in divorce.

Pebbles and L.A. Reid's marriage also ended in divorce due to his rampant cheating. Dallas and Chilli broke up, when she stated he began cheating. She then ended up with singer Usher, who cheated on her as well. Usher also cheated so much, he contracted genital herpes and has been sued by several women for infecting them with it.

In watching “Hopelessly In Love” it was another reminder of how sad and tragic things were behind the scenes for TLC and many people associated with them. There were so many problems, disasters and heartbreaks.

As I've written on this site before, famous people, particularly famous men, have damaged and or ruined their lives (and that of others) because they have too many options. All these women throwing themselves at them, and 99% of the time for superficial reasons as they're only attracted to their fame and money, they cheat and lose the one they love, which is sad and so preventable.

A very revealing September 2019 interview with music producer, Dallas Austin, where he spilled the tea on Clive Davis, TLC, L.A. Reid, Pebbles, Babyface, Boyz II Men:

Side Bar: “Hopelessly in Love” showed that after Lisa Lopes died Andre stated “my wife is gone” though they were never married. However, he like so many famous young men cheat on the woman they are in love with, rather than settling down and getting married.

Some decide to be promiscuous, often listening to friends encouraging them to be wild. However, years later they have regrets when they lose the woman they love to another man or as in Lisa’s case, to the grave. I do think Lisa and Andre were meant to be, but they blew it with the cheating and fighting. It's happened to other former couples as well, due to poor decision making, and often by the man.

In an ironic twist, Andre still in love with Lisa even after her death, married a woman with the exact same name. They now have four daughters.

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