One thing you’ll often hear fans praise about author Terry McMillan is her authenticity. And it doesn’t get any more real than the headline-grabbing drama surrounding her marriage and divorce to Jonathan Plummer.

After McMillan drew from the couple’s island courtship for How Stella Got Her Groove Back, Plummer later famously came out as a gay man. But McMillan says neither the novel nor its accompanying film were completely autobiographical.

“Yes, I went to Jamaica. Yes, I met a younger man. But most of what happened in that book and in the movie didn’t happen to us that way. It was fiction,” the Getting to Happy author explained in our Media Beat interview.

So, what does she think of her ex now? “We’re friends. I’ve forgiven him. One of the reasons I was able to tell [the story of Getting To Happy] is the fact that I really did overcome a lot of things, one of which was anger and bitterness,” she said.

And nothing like a little jerk chicken to ease the pain.

Part 1: Terry McMillan: From Waiting To Exhale To Getting To Happy

Part 3: Terry McMillan’s Advice to Young Authors: ‘Focus on Your Stories, Not the Fame’