MD: So, how can a family with so much love struggle with loving another race?

AM: You know, I don’t know.
DM: Ignorance.
AM: There was my sister, Marlene, who was like the “Angela Davis” [a radical social activist] of our family. And my sister, Olivia, whose first and last statement was, “How you denying your race?”

MD: She said that before she died?

AM: No, no, no. [Donnie and Andrea laugh]

MD: You said her “first and last statement” ... so, I thought, “You better pray for her soul!” [everyone laughs]

AM: No, I meant, that was the only thing she ever had to say about my [interracial] marriage.
DM: Initially.

MD: And how did things change? When did the change happen?

AM: I’m going to tell you how I got my sister, Marlene, to change. Before Louis and I got married – when there was no social media, video phones, and the whole deal – we were doing a show together (Don’t Get God Started), and we had a break ...
DM [interrupting]: Broadway.
AM: Yeah, we had a break. Louis went home, and I went home. He sent me a videotape that he did at his house. I got it in the mail, sat, and watched it. And after it was over, my sister Marlene – who’s like the “Black power” – said, “He sold me!”

MD: What was on the video?

AM: It was just, “Hey, how are you? I miss you.”

MD: So, your family saw that you genuinely loved each other?

AM: Yeah.

MD: And that made them accept him?

AM: That made one of them accept him.

MD: And, Donnie, what was your reaction to all of this?

DM: Louis is a loveable guy. My sister loves him, and he treats her well. They’ve been together for 27 years, and he still treats Andrea the same way that he treated her when they dated. This is the first time in the history of our family that a marriage has been so genuine, so real ... that it hasn’t ended in a divorce. Both of them come from broken homes, but they’ve broken every curse ... and brought integrity back to our family.