‘Married to Medicine’: Dr. Jackie Walters Opens Up About Quad’s IVF Journey & Season 12 Drama

It’s never just another day at the office on Married to Medicine for Dr. Jackie Walters. The OB/GYN has been a longtime staple of the Bravo reality series since the show began in 2013. Her calming presence is especially needed when Season 12 premieres on November 30 as the group remains fractured. Drama spilled over between Dr. Simone Whitmore and Quad Webb from the last season’s reunion. 

That puts the returning Dr. Contessa Metcalfe, Toya Bush Harris, Dr. Mimi Sanders, and Walters in the middle of it. Entering the mix to shake things up is Webb’s bestie Angel Love Davis, a registered nurse and entrepreneur, and Whitmore’s girl Brandi Milton, a board-certified family nurse practitioner. Episodes to come will also chronicle Dr. Heavenly Kimes’ run for Georgia State Representative and how she dealt with Damon Jr.’s arrest. 

“You’ll get to see Married to Medicine in ways you’ve never seen before,” Walters teased. Here the longtime cast member previews what’s to come. 

You’ve been on the show since the beginning and always seem to be caught in the middle. When we start the season, we’re picking up with Quad and Simone. How was it weathering through that? 

Dr. Jackie Walters: Yes, Married to Medicine does start where we left off. I just keep moving forward trying to give them positive input and showing them why each of them is important to the other. You’ll get to see this journey throughout the season between Quad and Simone, how they break up to make up to make up. We’ll see how that ends. It’s not hard for me anymore because I learned by now to keep myself out of it. Get the facts, tell them which is right and keep moving. 

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Speaking of Quad, you are helping her through her IVF journey. When it’s someone close to you, does it feel different? 

It does hit differently when it’s someone you’re close to because it’s not like you have an office appointment and it’s over to the next appointment. It’s actually a friend. Friends get home and they think of questions they didn’t ask or they have meltdowns at home and talk to you about it. This one was particularly hard because I had gone through the journey. It was reliving that journey and pulling that scab off and starting all over. It was hard. I didn’t want to be selfish and make it about me. I just wanted to be there as Quad’s doctor and friend. This one was hard. 

It seems there are more resources out there. What’s it like going through this with someone these days? 

If you get me at the wrong time, you get tears over again. I don’t think it’s something you forget. You are right. We have a lot of resources. The hard part is it’s not free. When we are talking to women, we have to be honest with them in that the fertility journey is a costly journey mentally, physically, and financially. But we are honest, very honest. That’s the beauty of Married to Medicine. You get to see a real life story. This wasn’t just made up for TV. It was real and happening and you got to see what Quad was going through with every visit with the good, bad, and the ugly. 

Lateasha “Sweet Tea” Lunceford has faced her own hurdles. She decided not to return to the series. Were you surprised about that? 

Well, we are all on the show and whatever producers bring we go with it. Surprised? I don’t know. She is a sweet girl. 

What can we expect from the Med Gala this season? 

This is our third annual Med Gala. We initially started the Med Gala because we had all been sheltered from the pandemic and wanted to bring the medical community back out together. It was such a hit, we thought let’s do it again. Toya made such a fuss during the first one that we didn’t have a cause. The second year we had a cause. This year Toya is our chairperson. You’ll get to see me work very closely with Toya. I still have hair on my head after , and it’s going to be great. The cause for this year, I want you to wait and see because it’s so important in this culture and this environment. I hope this keeps going and just blossoms and goes all over the world. 

What do you think Angel and Brandi bring to the group? 

These ladies are actually medical providers. That made it different. We have medical providers who understand the day-to-day life of other medical providers. It’s just the firestorm that comes with Angel. It was a trial by fire, and she stood up. Brandi comes in as a busy woman who is a mom of many and a business entrepreneur with a med spa, which was good for me because I also have a med spa. So we can learn from each other. Then she has a husband who travels, so it’s about learning to balance life. We’ve enjoyed them. 

Pictured: Dr. Jackie Walters — (Photo by: Michael Serine/Bravo)

You’ve been so close to Heavenly. How is it for you to be there for her after her son was arrested? What did you make of her ambitions to enter the political arena? 

That one was like, “What?” When I got the phone call that we’re now into politics. I was like don’t do this. When I heard her explain why and how that parlayed into the son, it made sense to me that she starts out running for state representative, and you’ll see that grow. Heavenly is a smart girl and up for the fight. We’re in a political climate right now. 

I was wondering if she was inspired after she went with you to meet Kamala Harris. 

When Vice President Kamala Harris was running for president, I think Heavenly had the bug. She got the bug. I think she got infected when she went to Washington where she thought, “we need more of me here.” Yeah, I think that did something for her, but also her son. The story you’ll get to hear throughout drove her to be involved in the process. 

What can you say we’ll see in terms of your marriage to Curtis [Berry]? The guys look to get more vocal with every season. 

We’ll be the ones sitting behind them during the reunions soon. No, Curtis is so chill. That’s what I love about my husband is he tries to stay out of the drama with the women especially, whether he is pulled into it or not. He definitely works very hard not to have an opinion. This year he had opinions. I was like, “where did that come from? Why do you have an opinion on that? “ We do well together because both of us are pretty chill and laidback and enjoy the simpler things in life. 

You know when he speaks, it’s something serious. 

Yeah, but sometimes it’s like, “we don’t want to see your serious Curtis.” He had so much to say this season we were like whose husband was that. Whenever Curtis and Dr. Damon have much to say, but this year it’s like they had a lot to say. 

How would you describe the dynamic among the ladies this season and how you play into that? 

This season I’ve been given the title of mother. As a mother, sometimes it was mutha, I’m not sure you don’t take sides. You just let everyone process what makes sense, but I stood 10 toes down for what is right is right and I’m not going to bend on it. 

What kind of impact do you think the show has after all these years? 

We have put our lives on display for everyone. I always tell everyone we show you what to do and sometimes our show shows you what not to do. But the beauty of Married to Medicine  is we give you real life stories. Whether it’s in our homes, kids, spouses, whether we want to show you what is happening with them or not, but we also get to show you what is happening in medicine. The beauty is that a woman comes up to you and says you saved my life. I had a monogram and found out I had breast cancer or with Quad’s story, millions and millions of women will be able to relate to what Quad is going through. I think the show is one of those where we are truly saving lives with this show. 

Tell me about your DUES brand? 

I’ve been a part of creating a scrub line with another doctor, and we really wanted the fashion savvy scrubs. We didn’t want the plain old box scrubs you put on and look like everyone else in it. We wanted a fashion look where you can go to work, feel comfortable, functional and go out and put on heels and throw on a jacket and still look good and nobody really knows you  have on scrubs. You’ll see more of that this season. 

What would you say you want to see the show tackle that it really doesn’t do currently? 

I wish we could take you into the OR [operating room]. We haven’t done that too much, but I really wish we could bring cameras into the OR where you get to see surgery and us in real life situations where the life of the patient is in our hands. We haven’t graduated yet to actually bringing the cameras into the OR. Not because the show won’t do it but because I don’t know if the hospitals will allow it. 

Married to Medicine Season 12 premiere, November 30, 9/8c, Bravo (Next Day Peacock)