Rap singer Eminem performs at the 2005 MTV Movie Awards in Los Angeles June 4, 2005.[Reuters]
Kim Mathers, the ex-wife of Eminem, says her on-again, off-again relationship with the Grammy-winning rapper is over and done.
"I never spoke up about it before because I always felt something for him," Mathers told Detroit radio station WKQI-FM in a live interview on Friday. "Now I have vomit in my mouth if I'm around him or hear his name. There's nothing left in me for him. Nothing."
Mathers, who has generally avoided the spotlight in the past, said she wanted to tell her side of the story to her family and to Eminem's fans, who know her mostly from the rapper's unsympathetic depiction of her in his lyrics.
Asked the most surprising thing about her life with the "Eight Mile" star, Mathers said, "Sex was bad."
Eminem, whose real name is Marshall Mathers III, issued a statement urging his ex-wife to stop talking about their relationship in the media.
"It's a shame that I've moved on and Kim hasn't. Her ongoing press campaign is doing nothing but harm to the children, and for that I feel truly sorry. For their sake, I wish she would stop," he said.
The couple's first divorce, finalized in 2001, prompted both a custody battle over their daughter, Hailie, and Eminem's hit "Kim" -- a graphic rap fantasy about his ex-wife's death.
His song "Mockingbird" from 2005 refers to her cocaine addiction in a rapped explanation of their split.
Mathers, who tried to commit suicide after watching Eminem perform "Kim" onstage in 2000, told the announcers on the "Mojo in the Morning" show she was still troubled by her portrayal in her ex-husband's songs.
"People hear them and praise him. It bothers me, because it's nothing like that in the real world," she said.
Eminem had used an earlier appearance on the same radio show to announce that he and Mathers had reconciled and would remarry.
Both Eminem and Mathers have battled addiction and legal problems in recent years.
Mathers pleaded guilty to cocaine possession in 2004, and said Friday she also was a recovering alcoholic.
"I made a lot of mistakes, and I am sorry, but I have learned from them. I will never be that person again," she said.
The couple reconciled in 2005, remarried in a January wedding in a Detroit suburb, but then separated weeks later. In addition to their daughter, the couple also cares for Hailie's cousin, Alaina.