Rapper Nelly sat for a candid interview where he revealed if he ever plans to marry and why industry relationships often fail. Watch the clip inside and see Jada Pinkett Smith clear up the rumors of an "open marriage."
Now that we've watched his longterm relationship with Ashantifizzle out, and seen him spark up something new with actress Tae Heckard, rapper Nelly gave a surprisingly candid interview about his thoughts on marriage and relationship (which might explain the backstory to of the Ashanti breakup).
He says he does want to get married one day, but no one will pressure him into it. Also, he gave an interesting perspective on industry relationships saying you can't compare them to "normal" couples. He says you can't compare a relationship between to non-celebrities who've been dating for seven years, to that of a celebrity couple who's been dating for the same amount of time. He explained that if you factor in all the travel and time spent away from home, the celebrity couple might have only spent three years together. It's a different kind of math. Here are the highlights:
On industry relationships:
I think people see the relationships that industry folk have and they see the time, but there're not doing the math. If you do the math on that time, you'll see that it equals out to something totally different.
On public perception of his relationships:
I shy away from public perceptions about my relationships. You can't tell me what I should be doing in my relationship. I'm not home everyday. I haven't seen her in two weeks. You see so many celebrities get married and then they're divorced in a year. You know why? It's because when they get finally get together....the -ish that you thought was cute, becomes annoying.
On if he will ever get married:
Yea I think so. But nobody is going to force me. Nobody is going to rush me into anything. Marriage is something you should do when you are ready to do it and you know this is everything. I take marriage very seriously. And I only know two ways of marriage. My parents' marriage didn't last at all and my grandparents' marriage lasted 60 years. I'm either gonna go all the way to 60, or I'm not gonna do it.
On being faithful:
I know me. If I have any questions, I'm going to play on that and eventually that may weigh in on the situation.
On if he's ever been close to marriage:
I don't think you've been close until you've been engaged. (He's never been engaged).
Watch the interview here:
And in other "marriage" talks....
Jada Pinkett Smith, one of the producers of Free Angela (in theaters today) chatted with the HuffPost about rumors of an "open" marriage to Will Smith, that have followed the couple for years. She explained that she's never given Will a pass to go outside of their marriage saying,
"I've always told Will, 'You can do whatever you want as long as you can look at yourself in the mirror and be OK,'"
She continued,
"Because at the end of the day, Will is his own man. I'm here as his partner, but he is his own man. He has to decide who he wants to be and that's not for me to do for him. Or vice versa."
So how have they managed to remain together for so long? She said,
"I think that you have to go into a relationship knowing — especially when you're dedicating yourself to someone for the rest of your life — this is a life partnership. He's (Will) been by my side through some of the most difficult parts of my life. And so that's something you can never take away."
It certainly doesn't sound like she ever said he can go out and sleep around on her, but it does show that she and Will realize that love and partnerships have ebbs and flows and they're both willing to roll with the punches.