We are in the era of the celebrity WAG. The wives and girlfriends of athletes are no longer high school sweethearts or unnamed baddies. They are singers. Rappers. Even athletes themselves. And while the latest batch of sports love stories have had their highs (Coco Jones and Donovan Mitchell, for example), there have been some public lows (Megan Thee Stallion and Klay Thompson).

Singer Keri Hilson can relate. The beauty was in a relationship with former NBA Champion Serge Ibaka from 2012 to 2016. And while it looked all good from the outside looking in, things weren’t so pretty. When asked about all the R&B girls who are currently dating NBA stars, and what advice she would give them, she tried to be thoughtful about her response. Overall, she wished well for the ladies and encouraged them, no matter what, to not settle.

“I wish them all the best…The only advice I would give is…what some of these athletes live is what I coined ‘the underworld.’ Which is a lot of access to random, meaningless sex,” she told The Shade Room’s Thembi Mawema. “And a lot of advances by a lot of the world’s most beautiful women. And they get that treatment everywhere they go. Every hotel they check into, they get numbers from flight attendants and waitresses—everywhere they go, it’s being literally thrown at them.”

“You have to be really, really, really strong and also protect your peace in that scenario,” she added. “But also, never negotiate—never abandon yourself. I don’t care how much you love them. If they are partaking in those activities, and it rubs your spirit wrong, know that you can leave. Know that it’s not the best that you can do. That’s not the best you can do. Never believe that. If someone is crossing your boundaries, crossing lines that you have clearly stated, you don’t have to put up with that.”

Again, though, she wished the women well—and that they wouldn’t have to go through what she experienced. “I really hope that’s not what’s going on. I really do. But I understand that these certain people have a lot of access, and it’s really difficult for them sometimes to not partake, ever.”

It can be especially hard, Hilson says, when there are ladies who make a concerted effort to entice these athletes despite knowing that they’re in public relationships.

“They find their value, in a twisted way, in what that man is willing to risk for them. And it’s sick,” she told Mawema. “It’s a sickness. But they don’t even really want the man. They just want to know that they can compare to you. So you see that a lot. It’s a game they play, and it’s really about them not knowing their worth and them trying to find that through what that man is willing to risk for them.”

Hilson added, “You’re married, you’re wearing your ring. They do not care. These women do exist, and they go after those athletes, especially the popular ones and even the non-popular ones get a lot thrown at them. It’s a tough world to be in, and I did not enjoy it. I’ll just say that.”