Three inspiring “sister-cousins” are telling BOSSIP about their melanin-excellence embodying show coming to OWN.
Jermeshia Goudeau, JaQuita Montgomery, Nicole Handy/ Source: Family Empire: Houston / OWN
As BOSSIP exclusively reported, Family Empire: Houston, a new series about the multi-generational Braden family of Houston, Texas, is premiering this Friday, June 28 at 8 pm ET/PT.
Source: Family Empire: Houston / OWN
The 8-episode unscripted series follows the Bradens across four generations of Black excellence that “explores complex themes of generational wealth and the building of a family legacy.”
In particular, the show produced by Carlos King’s Kingdom Reign Entertainment stars “sister cousins” Nicole, Jermeshia, and JaQuita who have a collective dream to follow in the footsteps of their beloved grandmother and the Braden family matriarch, Oscarene, a real estate entrepreneur who built the family empire from the ground up and “passed down this grit and determination to her children and grandchildren.”
Source: Family Empire: Houston / OWN
These inspiring realtors who make up the largest independently Black-owned brokerage in H-Town told BOSSIP that they’re excited to showcase their booming metro housing market while giving viewers an inside look at their family.
The premiere season will feature them confronting skeletons in the closet including an estrangement, complications around Oscarene’s plan to pass down the family wealth, single motherhood, and more. Despite the drama, the group still manages to always find a way to make amends.
Jermeshia Goudeau, Nicole Handy & JaQuita Montgomery-Martin Talk Family: Empire Houston, Representing Their City
Sisters Jermeshia, JaQuita, and their cousin Nicole recently chatted with BOSSIP before their OWN show’s premiere. The trio told Managing Editor Dani Canada that they’re ready for the world to meet the Bradens and all the fun (and the inevitable little bit of drama) that comes with them.
Source: Family Empire: Houston / OWN
Nicole in particular, said she’s feeling a whirlwind of emotions but she’s excited to work with her grandmother Oscarene and have their moments captured by the cameras.
“Honestly, I always tell people I’m feeling everything,” she told BOSSIP. “I’m excited, I’m nervous, I’m anxious, I’m happy. You know, but I will say this, the one thing that I truly, truly love is if I have to continue to work, it’s with my family and more so my grandmother. You know, she’s 87 years old, so I mean, who else gets to work with their grandmother and then have it captured on film?”
Jermeshia echoed that sentiment.
“I’m thrilled, I will say, I did go through a sea of emotions,” said the broker and realtor. “So one moment I’m like, I’m like, oh my gosh, My life is, my life as I know it, the problem is I know it will be gone, so of course that concerns me, but I do know what I signed up for. I’m super excited. I think our family has an amazing story and we kind of treat everybody like they are cousins, so I feel like I’m just going to get a whole lot of more cousins that I get to know! This is going to be an interesting opportunity and I get to do it with my sister -cousins, I get to do it with my family.”
Source: Family Empire: Houston / OWN
“Oh man, when I tell you it is definitely an experience that you really have to get adjusted to because with us being sister -cousins there are some moments where I want to just say’ I know you didn’t!’ but then I have to respect them as being my bossper se,” added JaQuita about working with family. “So it’s definitely an experience. And then working with my husband, having my husband work with the family, it’s a big adjustment for us all, because we’re trying not to blend family with business, we’re trying to keep it as two separate entities but a lot of times we end up blending it together. We do not do a good job. So we’re still that we’re still learning and trying to figure out.”
Speaking of the ladies’ husbands and families, Jermeshia also broke down the Family Empire: Houston brood to BOSSIP.
Source: Family Empire: Houston / OWN
The group includes four generations of the Bradens ranging from Oscarene and her late husband Frank a.k.a. “Paw Paw” to the “G 2s” and their spouses and their offspring a.k.a. the “G 3s.”
Source: Family Empire: Houston / OWN
“When they say it takes a village, it takes a village,” said Jermeshia. “You’re going to meet our mothers, our aunt; we have the “sister-cousins”, but we also have our aunt DeAngela, who is a part of the ‘G one and a halfs’ and she is like my big sister because we’re only nine years apart. I’m the oldest grandchild, so we’re nine years apart. So she’s our aunt, but she feels like our big sister and she works at the brokerage as well. You’ll get a chance to meet her and she is spunky. You’ll meet my cousin, Lakeshia, she is Nicole’s sister, she’s also a realtor with the brokerage. You meet our grandmother who is the matriarch and our husbands. My husband, he’s a realtor with the brokerage as well. So we work together very closely. Those lines are blurred, okay? But it makes it fun and I wouldn’t choose it to do any other way.”
JaQuita also noted that she’s excited for people not just to meet the Braden family, but their southern city of Houston, Texas.
“Let me tell you, Houston has everything. Like everything is bigger and better in Texas, as they say. We are so diverse, our food is amazing, as you can tell, our culture, you know, we have so much diversity, so much history in Houston and the people; you don’t meet good Southern people like that everywhere. And so we’re just happy to show that we’re successful business women and we’re also a close knit family, because that’s what’s a part of our Southern roots. So we’re just excited to put Houston on the map.”
Family Empire: Houston, produced by Kingdom Reign Entertainment, premieres on Friday, June 28 at 8 pm ET/PT on OWN.
Watch our exclusive with the cast!
