Jodi ‘Jinx’ Henriques

SOPHISTICATED, fierce, energetic, warm and accommodating are five adjectives which can easily be used to describe Jodi ‘Jinx’ Henriques.

She’s unpredictable — moving during this interview from vibrant and rootsy to quietly confident.

We’re at Digicel’s global headquarters in downtown Kingston with this fireball VJ, who was recently named the company’s new campaign face for Bacchanal. She explains that she’s two characters — Jodi Henriques and Jinx — moulded into one.

“Jodi Henriques is very quiet, a kind of homebody who is constantly cooking and cleaning, usually with the radio and TV off, spending time with my thoughts and doing my hobbies,” she says.

“Jinx is very loud, constantly talking and always has something to say. She’s the life of the party and, of course, the life of the carnival party.”

She says it’s this effervescence that convinced Digicel to select her, along with Yendi Phillipps, for their campaign.

“I’m so excited to be a part of the campaign. I think when you think of carnival, you think of me. I love Soca music. Everything about the music is positive and uplifting,” Henriques says, explaining that for years she has been travelling to Trinidad for their carnival parade and parties.

But she’s not all Soca. Henriques has had a career in media spanning 10 years, and there are other surprises.

Media is not something she had considered while growing up or while sifting through career choices at Immaculate Conception High; her stint in media unexpectedly started when she was partying with three other individuals who worked with RETV. They saw her energy and decided to give her a microphone and put her behind the camera to co-host.

“The rest was history. Now I love being on RETV because I like to talk and I learn through my job when I interview people. I love that,” she says.

Henriques, who has been married to Grammy-winning dancehall and reggae artiste Sean Paul since 2012, says her schedule allows her to juggle marriage and career easily.

“Luckily, I don’t have a nine to five, so I have the opportunity to juggle stuff around. My husband, who is the main breadwinner in the family, is not always here, so I cater to him when he is here. When he is here, I try and spend time with him. Apart from my work with RETV, if know that I have to go on a shoot outside of town, I try to do it when he is not here. If I know he’s going to be at home, I will try and do interviews and my work in the mornings, so that I can come home in the evening and cook dinner and do family things with him.”

She explains that she had met Sean Paul years ago, just before she left the island to study abroad.

“The night before I went to Denmark to study and live for a year, I went to Grasshoppers off Constant Spring Road and he sent his friend over to ask if I wanted to be in a Sean Paul video. I went over to him and cursed him off. Then I came back from Denmark and kept seeing him at parties; we became friends and got closer after that,” she laughs.

She says the ‘baby’ question continues to intrigue persons, but “it’s very important for married couples to spend time together before they welcome someone else into the family”.

“If I don’t get to know my husband more, then the distance between us is going to grow when a baby comes here. Right now we are doing all we can to build that strong relationship, so that [when] we welcome another person into the family, we’ll already have that strong bond there.”

The bond between the couple, she says, all comes down to finding time for each other and communication.

“Every successful relationship has to have those attributes. You have to find time for each other and have communication.”

Henriques is not just glitz and glamour. She says people would be surprised to learn that she was once an early childhood teacher.

“I have a degree in early childhood education. My years of teaching were the most rewarding years of my life. If I could, I would go back in a heartbeat, because it would help me to become a good mother. Nearing the end of my teaching years, I joined RETV.”

What’s next for Henriques?

“I have seen 142 cities in 39 different countries across the globe; however, I want to go to India soon,” says the woman who describes her husband, family and friends as her daily motivation.