Swizz Beats and Alicia Keys may be Hollywood’s it couple but at the beginning of their relationship, they were among much tabloid fodder. The two began dating amid Beat’s divorce from his first wife Mashonda Tifrere. Tifrere accused Keys of ruining her and Beat’s marriage, alleging she was blindsided by their split. The divorce between Tirfire and Beats’s divorce was brutal, but years later, the two of them have become friends and great co-parents. Beats credits Keys with helping merge the gap between him and Tifrere.
In a preview clip for Beat’s upcoming TV Once Uncensored special, he addresses the media frenzy that was a product of him and Tifrere’s split. He says he ignored the drama and focused on what was important: his children. “The heat was definitely hot because a lot of people like to gravitate towards negativity so anytime that people feels like they can get away from their pain and make fun of what they feel is your pain, that’s going to always be a hell of a celebration,” he says.
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Tifrere, Beats, and Keys have since co-written a Blend: The Secret to Co-Parenting and Creating a Balanced Family. Beats says the amount of media attention surrounding his divorce from Tiffire outweighs the attention their blended family gets. “We did a book on co-parenting, where was that party at? But everybody wants to throw a party when they think they [Tifere and Keys] wanna kill each other and be all negative and we have kids involved in this and we have to take the time out and go back to that word communicate and understand that everybody has their right to react. Everybody has the right to their emotions and everybody has to right to figure out how to move forward as adults and as parents.”
Tifere says her and Keys now have a “sisterhood.” Beats told People Magazine in 2018: “Mashonda and Alicia are the ultimate Krazy Glue that keeps our blending together. Women are the healers of the world.” Tifere echoed similar sentiments, adding, “I commend us as women…We have tea, girl talk. She wants to know who I’m dating — it’s really cute.”
