While Kijafa Vick is known to some as the wife of former NFL quarterback Michael Vick, she’s carved out her own lane. Entrepreneurship, philanthropy, TV production, and being fashionable for the plot—she’s been able to do it all.
Though Kijafa makes it look easy, we can’t negate the complexities that come with creating an autonomous identity when you’re married to a high-profile man.
The businesswoman has been married to the former NFL player for over a decade. Mike and Kijafa met in 2002 while she was attending Hampton University. The couple locked eyes at a nightclub and spent years building a solid foundation before getting engaged in 2009. The NFL player proposed on his 29th birthday, and they wed in Miami in 2012.
She spent years being his right-hand woman and supporting him through the highs and lows. The role can come with some hurdles.
“I felt like I was always boxed in,” Kijafa tells ESSENCE. So found her way out of those confines. The Philadelphia native, who appeared on Netflix’s W.A.G.S. to Riches, is now in the producer seat. One of her most recent projects is The Coach Vick Experience, a docuseries that aired in February, and documents Michael’s journey to revive the HBCU football program at Norfolk State. She also produced Evolution of the Black Quarterback in 2024 and Baller Wives in 2017.
“It wasn’t until I learned how to really just stand on my own, use my voice and tell my story the way I wanted to tell it and not let the media paint my narrative that I could live the narrative that I wanted people to see,” she says. “Then I could tell stories that are real and that I know relate to other women. In that way, I don’t allow that box to close up on me.”
And she doesn’t allow having a full house to get in the way of telling those stories. Kijafa is mom to Jada, 20, London, 17, Michael Vick Junior, 7, and her bonus son Mitez, 23.
“I feel like that is like the biggest responsibility that we have, making sure that everyone else is okay,” she explains. “I don’t know if it’s just like the unspoken rule, or everybody [goes] through it, but I feel like I’m everything. I’m the doctor, I’m the teacher, I’m the therapist, I’m the chef. I’m everything to everybody.”
While balancing the well-being of your family alongside your own can be dizzying, Kijafa prioritizes her needs.
“I feel you always have to make time for yourself, because if you’re not okay, you cannot make sure your whole family is okay,” she says. That prioritization looks like taking out two hours every day to work out. One hour is for strength training, and the other is dedicated to walking.
“Somebody really has to be dying for me to break that routine because I’m standing on it,” she makes clear. “I just feel like if I don’t make time for myself, if I’m not taking care of me, if I’m not making sure that I feel my best, then the whole house is gonna walk over me.”
For Kijafa, the key to maintaining her sense of self, including while behind the support system of Michael and their family, has been centering her inner voice.
“I feel like you can do both,” she says. “I feel like it’s possible to have a relationship and still be consumed with yourself. It’s a lot of pressure from the outside world, but I feel like if you hone in and just listen to your voice, you can do whatever you want to do and need to do.”
Beyond what people think they know about her life, Kijafa wants people to understand that she’s a powerful woman, an amazing mom, and a proponent of self-care.
“That is where I stand in life,” Kijafa says. “You have to take care of yourself; you have to put time into yourself. Be who you want to be [and] pour into other people. I just want people to think of Kijafa as a very strong woman who could do anything.”
