The Affair Rumors That Rocked Teyana Taylor's Marriage To Iman Shumpert
In September 2023, after nearly a decade together, singer Teyana Taylor announced the end of her marriage to NBA star Iman Shumpert. "Not too much on my bestie! In all fairness, Iman and I are separated and have been for a while. To be 1000% clear, 'infidelity' ain't one of the reasons for our departure," Taylor wrote in an Instagram post.
Prior to the separation, Taylor and Shumpert were considered one of Hollywood's most adorable couples with their individual success and never-ending public display of affection. "There isn't a day, minute, second, or breath that I am not in love with you. Happy wedding anniversary my love," Taylor gushed in an October 2022 post celebrating the couple's 6th wedding anniversary. Similarly, Shumpert never held back when showering his wife with the sweetest words. In celebration of 2023's Mother's Day, the NBA star took to Instagram, sharing a heartwarming post where he endlessly praised the singer's parenting skill. "Your lil head fits all of the hats no matter the size...but there's something so beautiful about that mommy hat, so pure and so forever! Keep on pushing the love and creating the memories that remind us what this life is about," he gushed.
However, despite their apparent love for each other, Shumpert and Taylor also faced their fair share of marital troubles — including a rumored affair that rocked their union to its core.
An alleged threesome reportedly resulted in a child
In early 2019, after Iman Shumpert left a heart-eyed emoji on a photo of Alby Rydes's newborn baby, speculation arose that Iman Shumpert might have fathered a child outside his marriage. Even worse, Rydes was rumored to have gotten pregnant after having a threesome with Shumpert and Teyana Taylor. "Word on the #FNLradio block is that Teyana & her hubby had a '3 Way' w/ a chick they brought back to the crib named Alby Rydes. Well she rides alright because Iman allegedly shot the club up & now they got a whole baby," one user wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Responding to the rumors, Shumpert took to Instagram, noting that there was no truth to the claims circulating at the time. In the statement, Shumpert admitted to being friends with Rydes, adding that his comment on her post was born out of awe and respect for pregnant women. "My legal team is about to go all at all blogs involved in curating this fake news and trust me them blogs don't have my kind of bread," Shumpert's statement further read(via Hollywood Life).
Taylor also denied ever being intimate with Rydes and reiterated Shumpert's claims about the heart-eyes comment. "You gotta be at a high level of insecurity to get mad over heart eyes on an innocent/baby pic. I'm just not that girl, I'm sorry," she wrote on X.
Teyana Taylor and Iman Shumpert had an unconventional marriage
Throughout their journey as a couple, Teyana Taylor and Iman Shumpert creatively navigated ways to add a little zest to their marital bond. Following the release of her second studio album, "K.T.S.E.," Taylor admitted during an appearance on "Big Boy's Neighborhood" that "3Way," — a song about threesomes — was inspired by her experience with Shumpert. "I'm not saying it's what you have to do," she said of the couple's decision to keep their marriage open. "I'm saying when you make a vow, and when you're married, it ain't no limits. Period. It ain't no, what you gon' do, what you not gon' do. Why do we get married? How we gon' get married and then have limits?"
As for whose idea it was to open their marriage, Taylor says it was all her. During a promotional show for online dating app Bumble, the "Lose Each Other" star shared her thoughts on polyamorous relationships, telling singer Jidena that she mostly initiated it. "People be surprised by how the woman initiates a lot of stuff. I'm not poly, but when everybody heard that me and my husband had threesomes before, they were like, 'She's willing to do that to keep a man,' but that was all me," the mom of two clarified.
They might not have been an ordinary couple, but who wants basic when you can be Teyana Taylor and Iman Shumpert?