On August 15, 2025, Deiondra Sanders sat down for an interview with Star News and explained what turned her engagement to R&B singer Jacquees into a broken relationship because of his “true colors.” That declaration came months after the fight went public, and years after her brothers, Shilo, Shedeur, and Deion Sanders Jr., first told her he didn’t belong in their family.

On an edition of Deep End with Lacrae, Deiondra went back to her 2024 pregnancy and revealed how her family reacted at the time.

“It was a controversial moment for my family because they really didn’t like him for the way that he treated me. So they was really mad,” Deiondra said. “I mean, everybody felt some kind of way, but my dad knew the issues I had with fibroids and stuff like that. So he knew I always wanted a family.

“But my other brothers, they were just like, ‘You gonna let this n**** in our family?’” she continued. “But they only [did it] because they’re very protective of me. Like, I’m their sister.”

For context, Deiondra and Jacquees started dating in 2023, and in March 2024, they announced they were expecting their first child together. Jacquees proposed to Deiondra at their baby shower in July 2014, which was originally planned as a pool gathering.

“I’m so ecstatic. I was not expecting this at all,” she wrote on her Instagram after the engagement. “I don’t even gotta say much cause we both know what’s up. I know this took a lot of courage, honesty, letting go of fear, epic nerve and self assurance. I am so proud of you, and I will be there every step of the way to help you become the man God intended you to be.”

By then, Deiondra’s father, Deion Sanders, was already thinking about becoming a grandfather, even though he hadn’t “digested that whole thing yet.” In an April 2024 interview with People magazine, he set his priorities straight.

“I’m proud of my baby that she’s at least waiting until her thirties to give me this gift of life,” he said. “I’m happy about that, but I want to make sure she’s straight emotionally and psychologically as well.”

Baby Snow Sanders-Broadnax came to the world on August 9, 2024 – sharing the birthday with his grandfather Deion. But while the Sanders family was welcoming its newest member, the problems between the couple had already started showing earlier that year.

In February 2024, Jacquees’ ex Dreezy was in a heated social media exchange with Deiondra, where Dreezy alleged that Jacquees was trying to get back together while dating Deiondra. Dreezy even shared chat screenshots between her and Jacquees to drive the point home.

Then, things got a whole lot worse in early 2025. Jacquees released an album – F*** A Fiend Zone 2 – with his now ex-girlfriend DeJ Loaf. In January, Deiondra had said that she couldn’t attend the video shoot. It wasn’t until February that she explained why, and alleged that Dej and Jacquees were faking their relationship to boost album sales:

“People gotta fake a relationship to sale albums,” she wrote. “Stop asking me why I’m not around. I am not allowed to be around them cause Dej would feel uncomfortable if his fiancee there.”

Per reports, Dej had said that she hadn’t ever met Deiondra Sanders. But in March, Deiondra clarified that the two had met, but Dej “didn’t even want to speak.”

By April, Deiondra claimed that Jacquees’ family was refusing to see Snow because of their issues with her. The couple took shots at each other on social media following Deiondra’s comments. But then in December, Jaquees posted cryptic messages on social media about women keeping fathers away from their kids. In response, Deiondra shared Instagram Stories of photos and videos showing snow at Jacquees’ house, spending time with his father.

“Ya’ll gone stop playing with me,” she wrote as a floating caption in one of the stories featuring Jacquees and Snow. “One thing I’m not is bitter. I’m not keeping anyone from they son.”

Sheduer, Shilo, and Deion Sanders Jr. didn’t just react once. They watched their sister go through months of public drama – from the Dreezy text messages to the altercation with Jacquees’ sister. Their anger was consistent throughout, and it was also connected to something deeper.

Deiondra had grown up watching her father carry himself with the utmost discipline, be it in the NFL, College Football, or his personal life. Those same strict values were later ingrained in her and all her brothers. Because of the standard set by her family, on Deep End with Lacreae, she admitted that she didn’t know some men act differently until this relationship ended.

“I didn’t know that – it’s some men like this. Some men that act like this or they choose this, they think like that,” Deiondra said. “So, now I know what I really want in a man more than I thought I did.”

But Deiondra Sanders’ story isn’t just about a bad relationship; it is also about the one thing she’d spent eight years fighting to get.

Deiondra Sanders’ struggles with motherhood

For Shedeur and Shilo, watching their sister go through this relationship meant watching someone threaten the future she’d nearly lost. Deiondra had been told for years she might not be able to have children.

Deiondra Sanders was battling heavy periods, headaches, and fatigue in her early 20’s. Her family thought she was lazy until her gynecologist found uterine fibroids – non-cancerous tumors on her uterine wall.

Birth control was supposed to help with her condition, but it only made things worse. At 22, the tumors caused a hemorrhage, and she lost so much blood that she needed five transfusions. Over the years, Deiondra had to go through four myomectomies to remove the fibroids. Doctors had even suggested a hysterectomy as a last resort, which would end her ability to have children. But she refused.

And when she finally got pregnant, it was nothing short of a miracle for the Sanders family. Deiondra took to her Instagram to make the announcement and turned it into a powerful message on why she chose to go through with the pregnancy.

“I’m not having my baby to keep a man. I am having my baby for all the times I was told I wouldn’t be able to. I’m having my baby for the 4 myomectomy surgeries I have had,” she captioned her IG reel.

“I am having my baby for all the years I stayed on birth control even though it gave me breast tumors,” she added. “I’m having my baby for all the Doctors that told me I wouldn’t make it out the first trimester. I’m having a baby for the 7 current fibroids that surrounds my uterus to this day. I’m having a baby for all the high risk moms that was scared everyday thinking they would miscarry.”

Deiondra said her father knew about all of her health struggles and understood that she wanted a family. That’s why he was calmer than the rest of the family through it all. As for Shilo, Sheduer, and Deion Sanders Jr., they saw their sister nearly die from bleeding, undergo four surgeries, and fight to become a mother, all the while facing public drama with Jacquees. That’s why, as Deiondra says, “they was really mad.”