Who Is Egypt Sherrod's Husband? All About Mike Jackson
The HGTV star and her builder husband and co-host have been married since 2010
Fate brought Egypt Sherrod and Mike Jackson together a few times before they realized they were destined to be partners.
Both of them were working in the radio industry when they first met. While Jackson was a DJ, Sherrod was a radio personality on New York City’s WBLS 107.5. She was already in the real estate business too, flipping houses in New Jersey. In fact, her on-air personality and experience in the real estate business led to HGTV reaching out to her and asking her to host Property Virgins.
After a few times seeing each other out, Jackson and Sherrod officially got introduced when Sherrod’s real estate mentor sent a contractor to help her on a house she was flipping in Newark, New Jersey, in 2004. Unbeknownst to her, the radio DJ she’d been crushing on was also a contractor and builder.
They started dating shortly after, and have continued to work together on flipping houses, translating their personalities to television and co-hosting Married to Real Estate on HGTV.
The couple tied the knot in 2010, and have since welcomed two children together, making them a family of five with Jackson’s daughter from a previous relationship.
“He taught me balance,” Sherrod said of her husband in an interview with Essence. “He taught me how to love with your whole heart.”
Here's everything to know about Egypt Sherrod's husband, Mike Jackson.
He’s her HGTV co-host
Both Sherrod and Jackson had history in the entertainment business and in the real estate industry when they met, so working together on both made sense for the couple.
Sherrod got her start on HGTV hosting Property Virgins in 2012, helping prospective first-time home buyers settle on a home, then continued with Flipping Virgins in 2015, where she guided first-time home flippers through the process.
In 2022, the couple debuted a new HGTV show hosted by both of them, Married to Real Estate. The show combines Jackson’s talent for building and Sherrod’s real estate expertise to help people buy and renovate their own homes in Brookhaven, Georgia.
"Life gets messy," Jackson says in a teaser for the show, while Sherrod adds, "But getting into your dream home shouldn't be."
The couple also collaborated on renovating a home for HGTV’s competition show Rock the Block, winning the third season’s challenge.
“All I could think was wow — we actually did it! To be able to see your vision come to pass amongst such other great talents was surreal,” Jackson told HGTV in an interview about how it felt to win.
“I think I was just overwhelmed by the emotion because we worked so hard. We barely had any sleep during all our time there. It was this emotional rollercoaster,” Sherrod added, explaining why she was brought to tears by their win.
They got married in 2010
Sherrod and Jackson tied the knot at the West Mount Country Club, on top of Garrett Mountain in New Jersey on Sept. 11, 2010.
The bride wore a strapless mermaid gown that was actually purchased as a backup to the dress Sherrod initially picked, but she ended up loving the substitute more than the original. She paired the ruched dress with a pair of Badgley Mischka heels.
Sherrod and Jackson enlisted the talent of some musical friends for the wedding, with Q Parker of R&B group 112 singing Luther Vandross’ “Here and Now” as the bride walked down the aisle. Coko of SWV performed the girl group’s hit song “Weak” at the reception.
“I turned into bridezilla,” Sherrod told Essence in an interview after her wedding day. "I just wanted everything to be perfect. My mom shook some sense into me. She said, “Say a prayer.”
“She brought me closer to God,” Jackson said, speaking about Sherrod. “She just makes me stronger with that feeling. It’s easier for me to speak about the spirit now.”
He’s a DJ
Jackson may now be known as a builder on HGTV, but he’s also a DJ who goes by the name “The Versatile DJ Fadelf.” He got his start on the turntables as a preteen.
“From the moment I knew what two turntables were, and the effect the right song could have on people, I was hooked,” Jackson told Shoutout Atlanta about his earliest memories DJing.
“I spun my first wedding at the age of 12, and the rest was history. I was dedicated to the craft. There wasn’t a day that went by that I wasn’t perfecting my skills, studying music and learning the technology,” he added.
Jackson’s DJ career is what initially allowed him and Sherrod to cross paths back when she was working as a radio personality.
At their wedding, Sherrod honored her husband’s musical side with a surprise groom’s cake shaped like a turntable.
He’s a builder and woodworker
Jackson is well-versed in the business side of real estate, but he’s also a talented builder and woodworker.
In an interview with Yahoo, Jackson revealed that he started doing construction as a kid with his grandfather and uncle.
“I would always be on their job site because they had a construction company. Then I transitioned into working for a local 28 in New York City, and then here in Georgia owned my own company, Jackson Draper Renovations, all the while back then DJing and doing them both at the same time,” he shared.
Jackson started Jackson Draper Renovations with business partner Mark Draper in Georgia in 2020, offering house and individual room renovations, painting and handyman services.
His skills also come in handy on Married to Real Estate, and helped him and Sherrod win season 3 of HGTV’s competition show Rock the Block, where they raised the value of the house they renovated from $500,000 to $931,000.
Their meet-cute took a few tries before it landed
In an interview with HGTV, Jackson and Sherrod shared the long version of how they met, starting with a concert in a nightclub in N.Y.C.
“I saw her backstage, and the light was literally only on her. From that moment on, I knew she was my wife. I told the security guard to let me back there, because I needed to talk to someone,” Jackson admitted.
Sherrod said that when he approached her, she thought he was “running a line” on her.
“ 'There was a light shining on you like I was supposed to meet you,’ ” she recalled him saying. “And I’m like, ‘Guy, can you just move out of my way?’ ”
She admitted she did find him attractive but she was focused on her “inner work” at the time, so she didn’t pursue him. But six months later, the two crossed paths again at the Puerto Rican Day parade in N.Y.C. Both Sherrod and Jackson were on different floats for their respective radio stations.
“I’m on my float with my friend, and I look over and I just see pecs! I didn't recognize him at all,” Sherrod said, adding that she convinced her friend to walk past his float with her.
“We walk by a few times, and then I hear someone call my name. My friend’s like, ‘The hot guy’s calling you!’ I look up and I realize it’s him, and we talk a little, but he never asks for my number,” she said.
Jackson said he didn’t ask for her number because he “didn’t want to get shot down [again]” in front of Sherrod’s friend.
But as luck would have it, the two were brought together by a real estate project, despite being unaware of each other’s work in the real estate business, when a mutual friend connected Sherrod with Jackson for a home renovation she was working on.
“That’s what’s so amazing about it. Each time none of it was set up,” Jackson said of all their chance meetings.
They worked on a house together before they dated
Despite both working in the music industry and having a few run-ins, Sherrod and Jackson didn’t start getting to know each other until a real estate situation brought them together.
“I knew Mike as DJ Fadelf, but we weren’t dating or anything like that because I never wanted to date a guy in the entertainment industry, but he was already a real estate broker as well,” Sherrod told Yahoo about their intertwining careers.
“I did not know that he was a contractor until one day I was flipping a house in New Jersey and my mentor gave me a referral, and it turned out to be Mike’s company, and that’s how we both realized that we had dual careers,” she continued.
“So, I actually ended up saving her on a rooftop with her foot stuck in a hole cause she tried to do some DIY project, you know. So, I went from being the DJ to saving the day in construction,” Jackson shared, reflecting on the first of many renovation projects they collaborated on.
He’s a dad to three daughters
Together, Sherrod and Jackson have welcomed two daughters: Harper Skye Jackson and Kendall Rae Jackson.
Kendall Rae was born on Jan. 12, 2012. She is Sherrod’s first child and Jackson’s first child with Sherrod. The couple welcomed their second daughter, Harper Skye, on Feb. 7, 2019.
Jackson is also dad to daughter Simone Nikole, born on Sept. 21, 2018, from a previous relationship.
When the couple revealed their third child would be a girl, Jackson joked about having all daughters.
“I guess God said, ‘Son you’ve been doing a good job thus far, let’s keep it going.’🤷🏾♂️😂,” Jackson wrote on Instagram alongside a video montage of clips of him with his older daughters. “I just kept seeing all that took place with [Harper's] sisters, and thought, ‘I’m excited to do it again.’ ”
“The first thing I said to my husband was I want to see her face,” Sherrod told PEOPLE about the moments after Harper was born.
“So they rolled her over to me because I couldn’t get up, so I could see her face, and I said to him, ‘I got one!’ Meaning our other children look just like him,” she said.
For Mother's Day in 2023, Jackson posted a sweet tribute to Sherrod. “To say we’re lucky to have her in our lives would be an understatement,” Jackson wrote about his wife on Instagram.
“She’s a force to be reckoned with, a visionary, goal getter, business owner….ALL WHILE BEING AN AMAZING, INVOLVED MOTHER,” he continued, adding, “The girls and I love you unconditionally.”
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