'Love & Marriage: D.C.': DJ Quick Silva and Ashley Silva on Monique Samuels' Exit, Season 2 and Misconceptions on Winter Williams Drama, and Season 2 (Exclusive)
Love & Marriage: D.C. is back for a second season. A spinoff of OWN's No. 1 unscripted series Love & Marriage: Huntsville., D.C. took viewers into the lives of three D.C. powerhouse couples at different stages of their marriages and businesses. Viewers were immediately struck by Ashley Silva, a devoted mother of two and wife of the popular DJ Quicksilva. She was sick of playing the background to Quick's playlist and wanted to break out on her own. The mompreneur is now in full swing promoting her self-help book/memoir that details how she overcame depression to become the best version of herself, and Quicksilva is supporting her along the way. But their busy careers are leaving little time for much else.
The second season will introduce a new power couple to the group, Joi Carter and Clifton Pettie, who appeared on fellow OWN series Ready to Love in 2021. The newly engaged couple are longtime friends of cast members Jamie and Erana Tyler, as well as The Silvas.
Ahead of the Season 2 premiere debuting on Jan. 21, PopCulture.com spoke with Quick and Ashley about the transition from its inaugural season to now. They also dished on Chris and Monique Samuels' exit and how it impacted things so early in the franchise, their blowup with friend of the show Winter Williams, and much more. Check out the full video interview above.
PC: So, congratulations on Season 2. Obviously, you're missing two of our cast members from the first season. So how do you guys feel, if at all, that the exit of Chris and Monique Samuels impacted the group or the dynamic?
AS: I think that with them leaving, of course, it changes the dynamic from the first season, but honestly, where we are in the second season, it honestly feels like a brand new show. When people leave, and people come, they either can bring in fresh air or not. And I think that the new cast members and the remaining cast members have definitely brought a lot this season. So while we missed the Samuels, it's a good show.
QS: It's not a good show, it's a great show. And like I said, we definitely wish the Samuels well. But Season 2, just know the Silvas is here. We're still here. The Tylers are still here. All the supporters of the show, you will not be disappointed. That's the best answer I can give you.
PC: So I'll start with you, Ashley. Going into this season after such an explosive reunion, thanks to your confrontation with Winter, what was your mindset this time around knowing that you had to interact with her and things really got off to a rocky start last season? Were you open to reconciliation or getting to know her, or were you just over the whole situation?
AS: So I want to start with last season, I was very open to getting to know her last season, which a lot of you guys, you didn't get to see that part. But she knows that. Things went terribly south for both of us. I think we both have very strong personalities, very strong mouths. Neither one of us want to be wrong or let someone else get the last word. So going into this season, I tried to be a little bit more open-minded, but I still remember what the hell happened at the reunion. So I couldn't be too open-minded.
PC: Now, speaking of the reunion, DJ Quick, you received a lot of backlash for your interaction with Winter where she accused you of being slightly aggressive toward her in your reunion interaction and felt that your energy was really targeted to her and not the man in question that you guys were speaking of. Now that you've had time to reflect on that, do you understand where she or viewers may come from, or do you feel as if they were misguided in the way that things were kind of chopped together?
QS: I think a combination of both, honestly. And I got to say kudos to Carlos King and to the production team because they made it very clear when I said it, and they put it in captions, "I am not talking to Winter." So a lot of the people that were upset, they see what they hear, and they hear what they see. So I literally started off by saying, "I'm not talking to Winter," but the people who were so upset, "He's talking to Winter." I mean, I literally started by saying, "I'm not talking to Winter." So I understand that. I would never verbally abuse any woman, whether I like her or not. So all my energy was 1000% not towards her at all. It was 1000% towards the guy who had said some things about me and my wife, which I stand on that.
I don't apologize at all. If any man disrespects me and my family, you get the smoke. So if anybody's upset about that, you can be big mad. I really don't care because I'm going to defend myself and my wife no matter what. But I do, I don't want to say I apologize [but]I do understand where some people's frustration was because it might've looked like I was giving that anger toward Winter, which I was not. So for the people that were upset about it, if they re-watch it, but a lot of times when someone's a fan of somebody, a lot of the people that were upset were fans of Winter. And one thing I want to give kudos, even though Monique's not coming back on the show this year, when that whole tweet went out, I was so excited to see Monique, literally, she was the first one to respond.
I didn't even see it, the backlash. And I guess Winter must have tweeted something, and Monique literally said, "Uh-uh. We not going to redo what's happening. You come for Quick because you know damn well he was not talking to you. You know this. If they edited it out, you not going to make it seem like my brother was verbally abusing you." And when me and Ash... I said, "Wow, Monique, good look." Like I didn't ask her to say that, but that shows you the people that were there, they know that wasn't toward her. It was just some of the people that were just Winter fans who already just don't like Quick and Ash. That was another admonition to say, "This is why I don't like them." So I think that's what happened with that situation.
PC: So last season, we saw Quick struggling to balance work and family life or just take a rest from work due to things that may have been going on with your health, and in the teaser and the trailer for this season, we see that Ashley, you're increasingly busy. So do you guys feel as if the roles have reversed within your dynamic, or now is it just two busy individuals in your marriage?
AS: Yeah, I don't think-
QS: You answered it.
AS: I don't think the roles have reversed, but I think that we are now two very busy married people. Yes.
PC: And we saw in the trailer as well that you had sort of an emotional moment where you were saying that you didn't really feel as if you were even able to take in all of the moments that were happening because you were so busy. How have you learned to try and create balance and to enjoy the moments while you can as your star is rising on this platform?
AS: I think that balance is probably the most overused, overrated word. I don't really think that there is such thing as balance. I think that you have to give 110% to whatever is the most important thing at that time. And I'm just trying to learn when my a hundred percent needs to go here and here or here. So that's where I'm now.
PC: And how would you guys say that this season, you teased it a little bit, saying that this season is great, but how excited are you for viewers to get to know more of who you guys are individually and as a couple, and what are you most excited for viewers to see this time around?
AS: That is my excitement is that we were a new show, trailing off of Huntsville. So last season, people were introduced to us, they were introduced to all the cast members' personalities, a little bit about our families, a little bit about us. So this time around, even though we do have some new faces, they're kind of familiar to people. So it's not a first introduction. So we can get more into our stories, and our lives and our personalities, and you guys get to see the why we work the way we work or why we interact the way we interact, or why we may come off aggressive or passive or however that person's coming off. So I'm happy that this time it's like, "Okay, you kind of think you know what to expect from Ashley, but have you seen the whole person yet?" And no, you haven't.
QS: And just to kind of piggyback off that, I hope I'm not spoiling anything, so I'm not going to say the exact number, but what I do like is that this season, it's more episodes. The first season, it was only 10 episodes. So if you look at a lot of...even some of the castmates were kind of saying certain things got edited out. But unfortunately, like I said, we filmed for 8 to 10 hours a day for a one-minute scene. So a lot of times when the viewers and the fans are watching the show, even though we're a part of the show, we're watching the show with you guys. So we're like, "We didn't even say that right there." Or how they edit certain things. But I think this season, because we have more episodes, you'll get to see more. So I don't know. Once again, we haven't seen any of the episodes. So if you've seen one, you got one up on us.
PC: Yes. I saw one.
AS: You saw the first episode?
PC: Yeah. We were given screeners ahead of the interview.
AS: Oh, that's so nice.
QS: We have not. We'll address that once we get off this call, but seriously we haven't seen any of it yet. So that's the thing is that I'm excited to see that because when you only get 10 episodes, and you're filming for months at a time, production or post can be like, "Well, we had to edit it out. We didn't have time or space." But when you have more episodes, it's like we don't know.
AS: There's still going to be things that are going to be edited out.
QS: I'm hoping, I'm hoping that you'll get more of what we will actually happen at the moment. Because like I said, a lot of fans, I hate saying fans, a lot of supporters, you judge people off of a two-minute clip when that clip took us 10 hours, literally 10 hours, and we had to walk 36 times and do this over, do that. So it's like... I don't know. We'll see how that comes out.