Adrienne Bailon Says in Relationships, She Always Comes First

From teen star (as part of 3LW — remember them? — and Disney's The Cheetah Girls) to a short stint on Keeping Up With the Kardashians to cohost of daytime talk show The Real, Adrienne Bailon has lived all her ups and downs in public. In an interview in the August 2015 issue of Cosmo For Latinas, on sale July 21, the Puerto Rican and Ecuadorian beauty, who is in France studying fashion this Summer, opens up about the roller-coaster ride that got her where she is now. Keep scrolling to read part of Adrienne's supercandid interview and see more pictures from her shoot.

  • On relationships: "I've gone through a lot to get where I am; I've had boy ups and downs like no one can imagine. There were times when I would hysterically cry to my sister and say, 'If God has someone for me, where is he? Why am I not being understood? Why can't he just love me — am I not enough?' One day, my sister turn to me and said, 'I'm your soulmate.' I just boo hoo cried. I know it sounds crazy, but I'm not in search of a soulmate because I believe she's it — and that's good enough for me."
  • On how to keep long-term relationships hot: "You have to make somebody continue to want you. Nothing makes a man more turned on than saying over the phone, 'I'm in bed and this is what I wish was happening.' Send a sexy photo. I don't mean a spread eagle pose in lingerie [laughs], just telling him, 'I'm in bed wearing lingerie and it smells like you. Wishing you were here.'"
  • On why she puts herself first: "When I got the job [at The Real, and had to move from New York to Los Angeles] everyone was asking, what are you going to do? I thought that was an absurd question. There is no way I'm not going to follow my dream for a man. In my 30s, that feeling clicked: Yes, I love you, yes, I want to be with you, yes, I want a family with you, but I come first. Once I was able to articulate that, Lenny [Santiago] found me even more attractive. I think that's why I'm engaged today."
  • On plastic surgery: "I had my breasts done when I was 19. I've always found curvy, voluptuousness so beautiful, and when you're that age you think, I want to be sexy and womanly. I went to a doctor in Miami and asked for a B cup and ended up with double Ds. I had to go back to work with The Cheetah Girls, where I was supposed to look much younger, and here I was with these porn star boobs. I went from one insecurity to the next — feeling like I was too small to feeling like when I walked into the room everyone knew my boobs were fake."