NEW ORLEANS (AP) – For years, Karrine Steffans was one of the most sought after video vixens in the hip hop industry. In the late ’90s and early 2000s she had roles in more than 20 projects by multiplatinum-selling rap artists, appearing alongside the likes of Jay Z, Puff Daddy, Mystikal and R. Kelly.
Then in 2005, she harnessed her celebrity status to write “Confessions of a Video Vixen,” a stark account of her hard life growing up in the U.S. Virgin Islands with an abusive mother to her days atop the music field and the abusive relationships she had endured throughout. She also chronicled her trysts with several of the artists she worked with, landing on The New York Times Best Seller list as two more books followed.
Nowadays, Steffans no longer performs on a video set. She stands at a lectern, telling her story to students on college campuses, hoping this time around people will look beyond the celebrity and hear her out about the ongoing fight against domestic violence and abuse.
In June, the 37-year-old published “Vindicated: Confessions of a Video Vixen, Ten Years Later,” her latest memoir. The book newly explores her personal journey, this time in a more toned-down manner. And it focuses on her on-and-off relationship with her famous child star ex-husband and the continued cycle of abuse she said she withstood.
“This is not a metamorphosis,” said Steffans in an interview with The Associated Press during a recent visit to New Orleans. “I haven’t morphed into an advocate against domestic violence. I’ve always been this way.”