When it comes to sacred subjects like marriage and motherhood, most of us are eager to lighten our loads and look forward to reading, or seeing, what the rich and famous say about how they keep it together….until their words are construed as a burden that can only make things worse.

That’s what happened last month when former model and volleyball superstar turned fitness expert, Gabrielle Reece, released her second book and latest best-seller, My Foot Is Too Big For the Glass Slipper: A Guide To The Less-Than-Perfect Life, and found herself being raked over the coals for using a simple word— “submissive.”

Um, yeah….didn’t exactly go over well. Instead of delving into the other aspects of her memoir, the 43-year-old wife and mother found herself defending and re-explaining the context while being accused of setting back the feminism she’s always been a champion of.

Recently, in an effort to clear the air and flesh out the true purpose of the book, Ms. Reece spoke one-on-one with us about what she meant, what she’s learned in her life’s journey and why women need each other now more than ever before.

MELODY CHARLES- I love the book and it’s an honor to chat with you today, thanks Ms. Reece.

GABRIELLE REECE- “You’re welcome, I appreciate you taking the time and to being open to reading it.”

MC- You never struck me as a Stepford Wife, so why do you think that one paragraph got so out of control as far as representing you and your memoir?

GR- “ I thought the media was going to pick up on the fact that it’s about aging, friendships, relationships ….I could’ve never anticipated that the discussion was going to be almost completely initiated through the ‘submissive’ part. It didn’t occur to me, to be honest. I realized that the topic, not me necessarily, hits a nerve and women became upset. I believe in being in your ‘male zone’ as a woman, I totally believe in that. It’s just that the conversation didn’t start off well and I didn’t even anticipate starting off there. I had to be careful and not start back-peddling because I thought it would look even worse.”

MC- I think what irritated so many women was that it seemed as though you were speaking about all the work you were doing as a spouse, while your husband (professional surfer Laird Hamilton) sat there and reaped all of the one-sided benefits. Submission is fine as long as it’s not one-sided, and that’s exactly the way it came across.

GR- (laughing) “He’s gotten a lot better with the ‘moody’ thing and is soooo much cooler now. He’s been doing his half (in the marriage): he’s not this macho guy saying ‘Hey woman, dinner at 6,’ that’s not even part of the idea. When I was younger, it made me feel like he was on one team and I was on another. Now, he’s better at expressing ‘It’s not you, I’m just going through something.’ *click here for the rest of the Q&A*