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Is Dr. Jackie Walters a Workaholic?
The #Married2Med OBGYN's struggle to make more time for her husband is real.
Dr. Jackie Walters is an extremely accomplished individual, but that success doesn't come without sacrifice. Last Sunday night's episode of Married to Medicine teased that she and her husband, Curtis, will have a heart-to-heart about making more time for one another and possibly slowing down in their careers.
The OBGYN told The Daily Dish that we'll see her and Curtis learn to balance their professional and personal lives this season of Married to Medicine. "We’re working on it," she said. "You don’t trade in your spouse for a new model. You have to keep the old one and fix it. We’re doing the mechanics on Curtis right now, and we’re working on me. We’ll see."
Dr. Jackie said that Curtis may not necessarily understand that some of her time away from him is spent not at work but helping others through her 50 Shades of Pink Foundation. "What’s important to me, now that I’ve had breast cancer twice and infertility, and I see tons and tons of women who may have challenges with their health, my appreciation for life is a little different and my gift back. It is my life’s passion to help women who are going through breast cancer. My husband, on the other hand, has not quite understood that there are 24 hours in a day, and I do spend 16 of them doing other things," she said. "That is [like] how Curtis likes golfing. He loves to golf. It takes all day long for golfing. He really gets into that. So when I’m working with the foundation, it feels like I’m golfing. Trying to get my husband to see that that’s a give back and that’s not truly a job, we’re working through that."
While Dr. Jackie acknowledges that she does "work a lot," she said she wouldn't label herself a workaholic. "I love what I do. It requires long hours," she explained. "'Workaholic' has a bad name. I’m dedicated, determined, driven."
There is a moment in the supertease for this season of Married to Medicine (clip above) where Dr. Jackie says that marriage is all about compromise, which is something that she told The Daily Dish is "certainly" true. "Life is about compromising in any relationship but especially marriage. This is the person you share all of your intimate moments with physically, emotionally. You share. This is the person who sees you go to the bathroom. You certainly learn to compromise," she said. "Growth in marriage is like exercise. You have to build that muscle and going through those struggles in marriage, you grow, hopefully together."
In that moment in the supertease, Curtis makes it seem like he may be compromising more than Dr. Jackie, but she doesn't agree with that. "All men feel that they’re the ones compromising the most. I mean, come on," Dr. Jackie said in response to the clip. "Curtis is so, 'Oh Jackie, I’m here all the time and I’m available.' He has seasonal work. He has his intense moments. He’s a basketball coach in part of his life. He’s always going, going, going for a season. When that season’s over, he's like, 'Hey, Jackie, I want to play. I want to spend more time with you.' Yeah, he feels like he’s the one who’s compromising, but I wish I had a wife to do all the things that wives do, but I don’t."
For now, Dr. Jackie said she doesn't see herself retiring or cutting back on her work in the near future but plans to reorganize her priorities. "Slowing down? No. I see myself shuffling. Maybe a little bit more of this, and a little bit less of that. But slowing down? No. I think people lose their thrive and their determination to thrive when they retire and do nothing. I need to wake up and have something to do," Dr. Jackie explained. "My husband’s always talking about when we have a down day that I decide I’m going to clean out a cabinet or I’m going to fix the garage, so I don’t think I know how to do that. That would bore me, so no."
There's still important work to be done, after all. "What would you do doing nothing? Who could you help if you were doing nothing?" she said. "Life is about giving back, changing lives, and making a difference. You can’t do that sitting in the house."
Find out more about Dr. Jackie's work (and some very important clients), below.
