By james art 
Draya Michele at the NAHMIAS SS25 Menswear Show held at Pan Pacific Park Gymnasium on June 9, 2024 in Los Angeles, California (Photo by Gilbert Flores/Variety via Getty Images)
Draya Michele is defending herself after Laura Govan claims she ‘beat the shit out’ of the model for sneaking up on her then-partner, Gilbert Arenas, just to befriend her on the VH1 series, Basketball Wives.
The swimsuit designer’s initial response was simple; post on Instagram Stories that read: “I’m not bothering anyone. Why does it happen? nobody bother me (read that again),” essentially calling Govan a nobody. She later described the situation in detail and questioned Govan’s recollection of the events.
According to Michele Arenas, he wasn’t married when they were involved with each other, so she doesn’t see herself as a “jump” as Govan describes her. She also stressed that she was involved with the athlete “years before I was on the show” and also denied being overly friendly and/or fake with Govan while on the reality series, another of her claims.
“I didn’t know her then. And I also didn’t know her when I agreed to be on the show, nor did her sister [Gloria],” Michele shared on her since-deleted Instagram Stories on Wednesday (October 30). “I didn’t even know any of them were going to be on the show, so to say the word ‘friend’ is a huge burden.”
She went on to highlight what her presence has done for the show, believing she has brought “comedic relief” and “relatability” to the series, resulting in the “highest ratings it has ever received”. Michele also insisted that her storylines “carry” the show and that if anything untoward had happened involving her – such as Govan claiming she beat up Michele during production – it would have been aired, contradicting the claim to Govan that the fight was so brutal that VH1 buried it.
Govan made his original claims during a chat with Carlos King, when he asked the mother of four what she thought about Gilbert publicly discussing being intimate with Draya in the back seat of a car. Govan knew about the moment, as Gilbert had first admitted it to her personally. However, she did not know that Draya was the woman in question, discovering the truth after realizing that he had sent her $25,000 and flown her to Los Angeles.
She believes that Draya knew this while she was Basketball Wives and befriends her deceitfully, leading to a beating. Hear her side of the story below.
Although Govan and Arenas never married, they dated from 2002 to 2014 and share four children.