‘Love And Hip Hop:’ Was Chrissy Lampkin Right All Along About Yandy Smith’s Need For Fame? [Video]

Despite never straying too far from common reality television tropes, fans of VH1’s Love and Hip Hop (occasionally abbreviated LHHNY) are surely familiar with the tonal shift that seemingly began in the midst of Season 2.

In fact, one of the series’ seminal players, clothing designer Chrissy Lampkin, who bid adieu to the show in 2012, seemingly departed due to the thematic switch that started with the addition of several new faces to LHHNY, including Yandy Smith, lifestyle brand consultant and former manager to Lampkin’s fiance, rapper Jim Jones.

Throughout the season, things would become so heated between the pair (due to an alleged recurrence of boundary overstepping by Smith) that by the reunion episode, Lampkin flat out refused to interact with Smith or show creator Mona Scott-Young.

“I thought she would come on the show and represent Jimmy and his brand,” she relayed to Love and Hip Hop executive producer Stefan Springman, as noted on the official VH1 blog, “[but] I didn’t know that she would be involved [with] every crazy incident that happened.”

“She traded in her managerial hat for reality TV.”

Smith, meanwhile, would go on to claim that Chrissy simply didn’t want to share the spotlight.

“Jim called me and said, ‘Chrissy said you’re doing too much,'” she said to Scott-Young, with whom she was once close friends. “I was under contract and getting paid to do [Love and Hip-Hop], so [I stayed].”

How ironic is it, then, that just five years later, Lampkin, who went on to lead the canceled spinoff Chrissy and Mr. Jones, may have had a point all along?

In a preview for next week’s episode of Love and Hip Hop, which was shared by the Jasmine Brand, a previously rumored reveal of Smith’s fake marriage to fellow cast mate Mendeecees Harris is pretty much confirmed by the Everything Girls Love CEO. While chatting with model Kimbella Vanderhee, who rejoined LHHNY full-time this season, and another friend, Yandy is seen making the following admission.

“This man tried to marry me [not] once,” she says, “but twice.”

“So, what are you trying to say,” a confused Vanderhee inquires.

“I have a union with Mendeecees, but I did not go into a partnership with Mendeecees and the government.”

Long story short, she’s not legally betrothed to the currently incarcerated Harris.

On a larger scale, disclosing such news not only puts Smith’s place on Love and Hip Hop in peril — whispers from Fameolicious claim that Scott-Young is none too pleased with Yandy for carrying out the lie, which VH1 paid for via a wedding special — but it also jeopardizes her freedom as well.

An earlier report from the Inquisitr explains that by not signing their names on a marriage license, Smith steered her way out of footing mounting child support bills from the mothers of Harris’ eldest children (he and Yandy also have two children, a son and a daughter). In certain states, parents are legally able to sue the married spouse of a jailed former lover should they choose to recoup those monies.

Furthermore, albeit not intentional, it also gives quite a bit of validation to Lampkin, who Smith has maintained a somewhat contentious attitude toward. During a behind-the-scenes moment of the Season 6 Love and Hip Hop reunion, Yandy was asked about her current knowledge on the goings-on of Jim and Chrissy.

“I haven’t seen [or] heard [about them],” she remarked. “I haven’t heard any music lately [from Jim]. I hope he’s in the studio. And Chrissy? I don’t know if I’ve seen [her fashion line] Lady Vamp, either. Is it in stores?”

Lampkin and Jones have yet to comment on the matter. Love and Hip Hop airs Mondays at 8 p.m./7 p.m. Central on VH1.

[Featured Image by Mike Coppola & Taylor Hill/Stringer/Getty Images]