La Toya Jackson engaged to Jeffre Phillips
LOS ANGELES -- La Toya Jackson will be hearing wedding bells in the future.
The 58-year-old singer and star of the reality show "Life With La Toya," revealed she's engaged to her longtime business manager, Jeffre Phillips, and showed off her ring during an interview that aired on "Good Morning America" on Wednesday, June 4.
"Yes, I am. I'm engaged. And I'm excited about it. Yes, I'm very much engaged ... And it's wonderful," she told ABC's Abbie Boudreau.
Jackson flashed her 17.5 carat diamond ring, which can be seen above, and opened up about being single for many years after being in an abusive marriage to her former manager and ex-husband Jack Gordon. Gordon had denied her allegations. He died in 2005 at age 66.
"He [Gordon] took me to Japan, where I was supposed to be for a few days and then he took away my passport and said 'You're never going back,'" Jackson told OTRC.com in 2011. "From that point, he started the abuse. He locked me in closets, I wasn't allowed to watch television, he started beating me, I couldn't have friends or read newspapers... he was making me do things totally against my will, like Playboy [magazine] and everything that he did. He told me if I didn't do it that he would kill me and kill my brother Michael. It was like a Catch 22."
Jackson talked about being open to love again after going through that experience.
"I felt that I didn't want to have anything to do with men or that they would control me ... But things have changed," she told Boudreau. "And now I'm open."
Jackson doesn't have a wedding date set just yet, but she did talk about the possibility of adopting a child with Phillips. She appeared on "Good Morning America" to promote the second season of her reality show, which kicks off on June 7 at 10 p.m. on OWN. Viewers will see Phillips talking to Jackson's father, Joe Jackson, about possibly marrying La Toya.
