Kim Porter’s Ex Al B Sure! Shares Emotional Throwback Photo Tribute After Her Death

Al B. Sure!, who dated Kim Porter before she started dating Sean “Diddy” Combs, paid tribute to the late actress, who suddenly died Thursday at age 47, on Instagram.

The Grammy-winning musician, whose real name is Albert Joseph Brown III, shared a black and white throwback photo of himself with Porter. He included a broken heart emoji, a praying hands emoji and the hashtag “Forever My Lady” in the caption. He also tagged Porter’s Instagram page.

According to Vibe, “Forever My Lady” is also the name of a song Sure! wrote as a tribute to Porter. The song became one of his group, Jodeci’s best-known songs.

“I remember they were working on the song and they couldn’t come up with the lyrics and Al looked at me and he was like, ‘So you’re having my baby,’ and I was like, ‘Ohhhh,’” Porter said of the song in an episode of TV One’s Unsung.

Porter and Sure! share a son, Quincy Brown, whom Combs raised. Quincy, 27, is best known for his role in the Fox series, Star and the film, Dope.

Combs and Porter were together for 13 years before breaking up in 2007. The couple had three children together, 11-year-old twin daughters Jessie James and D’Lila Star and 20-year-old son Christian. They stayed on good terms, reuniting as recently as last month for the premiere of Quincy’s movie, The Holiday Calendar.

Porter died on Thursday in her Toluca Lake, California home and her death remains a mystery. She reportedly suffered from pneumonia for several weeks and was fighting the flu days before her death. Investigators also reportedly found no signs of medications that could have led to an accidental death. Porter also did not have a history of drug or alcohol abuse.

“Sadly, I can confirm the passing of Kim Porter. I ask that you give the families privacy at this time,” Diddy’s representative, Cindi Berger said Thursday.

A source later told PEOPLE, “Diddy is devastated and shocked. He and Kim were still very close friends and co-parents even though their romantic relationship didn’t work… They were still a family.”

In an interview with Essence in 2009, Porter said she did not feel animosity towards Diddy, especially since they shared three children.

“We’re friends. I’m the person he can tell his inner most thoughts to and he’s that person for me. He still calls me everyday and we talk. There’s no ill feeling or ‘I can’t stand you, I hate you, don’t call,’” she explained at the time. “There’s none of that. We have three children together so that’s just not an option. We’re committed to our children even if we couldn’t commit to each other.”

Photo credit: Emma McIntyre/Getty Images