Egypt Sherrod and Mike Jackson may have seemed to have the perfect relationship on “Married to Real Estate,” but the former HGTV stars say what fans saw wasn’t the whole story. In a new interview, the couple opened up about some of the obstacles they’ve overcome throughout their marriage.
Egypt Sherrod & Mike Jackson Reveal What Fans Didn’t See on HGTV
During a November 2026 appearance on “The Deep End” podcast, Sherrod and Jackson opened up about the challenges they’ve faced in their marriage, admitting that what fans saw on their HGTV show didn’t always reflect reality.
“People look at us and they would watch us on TV and put us on this pedestal as if they are the perfect couple, the perfect marriage,” Sherrod said.
She continued, “There is nothing perfect over here. We’re just two very imperfect people who love one another and our family, have prioritized that, and pray every day that God keeps us together.”
Jackson added, “Two imperfect people that continue to choose each other daily.”
Later in the interview, Sherrod shared what it was sometimes really like when the cameras stopped rolling.
“There was a point where the world is looking at us like, ‘I want to be like Egypt and Mike. I love their marriage. They got it all. They got the business, the shows, the kids, the whole thing.'”
“And the cameras would go off and we’re like, ‘Get on my nerves,'” she said with a laugh. “You know, you don’t see that part.”
Egypt & Mike Admit ‘We Had It All Wrong’
Sherrod and Jackson also reflected on how they’ve grown as communicators and worked through challenges in their relationship.
“How we loved one another, we had it all wrong, I don’t know how we stayed together 22 years,” Sherrod said.
She noted that Jackson would tell her during a disagreement, “We’ll talk about it later” and give her space.
“He did a lot of years of that, of being the ‘You know what, I’m cool. I’m going to let you have that.’ ‘Oh, for real? That’s how you feel? I’m going to let you have that,'” Sherrod recalled.
She continued, “That’s not healthy though. Because inevitably, you’re putting bricks in your backpack and then before you know it, you’re 15 years into a marriage and you’re carrying a heavy backpack of resentment.”
“Especially when you do TV shows together, right? You raise a family. We’ve got three girls. You got all these businesses and you add all those pressures on and now we have to deal with each other, sometimes not lovingly, but very matter of factly,” the former HGTV star said.
“So years of that, something’s going to break, something’s going to give and yes it broke for us — it broke but it was necessary because we truly believe that God was like, ‘I put you two together and I put you together for the long time not for the meantime. Which means that I intend for you to evolve, not stay the same,'” Sherrod explained. “We both had to go inside and be honest.”
“Get rid of ego, dissolve it. It has no place in a marriage,” she added.
Sherrod also shared the importance of respect in a marriage. “Are you showing me respect? … We had to get to a space of where we decided we wanted to be together more than we wanted to win the argument,” she shared.
“We wanted to stay married more than we wanted to be right. And so that required me to tape my mouth closed for approximately 65 days,” she said with a laugh.
Egypt Sherrod & Mike Jackson Reveal What Fans Didn’t See in Their Marriage on HGTV: ‘Nothing Perfect Over Here’