The last season of Love & Marriage: Huntsville chronicled the fallout of Melody Holt and Destiny Payton-Williams’ friendship. Payton-Williams became friends with Melody through her marriage to Martell, as she and Martell have been friends since high school. Martell has been getting a ton of criticism from viewers on his personal choices, as well as his professional endeavors. Payton-Williams is coming to his defense. 

Fans blast Martell’s wine company

In the first half of season 4, Martell embarks on starting a wine company, in honor of his grandmother. Though he’s not a wine drinker, he says Melody introduced him to a sweet wine that he fell in love with during their marriage and wanted to have such options from others who want to journey into wine tastings. After months of promising the release, his wine is now available for purchase. But customers have been complaining about delayed shipping and an overall lack of professionalism in packaging and branding/marketing.

What is discussed on Instagram live

Payton-Willams talked about the show and being compared to Melody on Instagram, as reported by Urban Belle Mag.

She said, “That used to really, really get on my nerves the comparison and all that other stuff because I’ve been Destiny before Love & Marriage: Huntsville. Let me pop my **** a little bit. Come on now. Stop playing with me. But anyway, no. I think it’s purposeful. You can never dim anybody’s light no matter who it is.”

She continued,

“Keep being authentic…I’m saying because people like the fake,” she said. “Seems like people are enjoying the fake way more than the authentic these days. Seems like people are really more into the fake even when you can see that it ain’t real. The narratives that are being sold are very inauthentic.”

Payton-Williams defends Martell as a business owner

While Melody and Destiny are no longer friends, Payton-Williams remains loyal to Martell. She’s seen the backlash online about his wine company and took the time out to respond to fans’ comments.

“Y’all kill me. Listen, you know what, y’all kill me tryna down businesses. You ordered stuff from Amazon, and I’m sure it didn’t come within the time frame…order stuff from other places…we’re Black-owned businesses,” she said in part. We’re Black business owners that are creating brands and figuring it out as we go. A lot of these older companies went through the same thing so y’all stop bashing people and try to find a way to support. And also, let him know, hey, send a message. Stay on him. Things happen.”

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