Strange Things About Coco Austin And Ice-T's Marriage
There is no couple like Ice-T and Coco Austin. He is a gangster rapper who inexplicably transitioned from into a venerable mainstay on one of the most popular police procedurals of all time, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. She's a model, blessed with bodily proportions that likely had even the creators of Barbie thinking, "Really?" when she hit the scene. Together, they're a power couple, and one of Hollywood's longest running ones to boot, with 18 years of blissful union under their belts, as of this writing.
So, what's their secret? You might be surprised to learn that it's a pretty simple mix good communication, strong support for one another, and good old fashion bedroom chemistry. Well, not exactly that old fashioned, but let's not get ahead of ourselves.
While their marriage is still going strong they've definitely weathered their fair share of controversy, as well as shared their fare share of odd tidbits about what it's like behind closed doors at their house. Here now, are the strange things about Coco Austin and Ice-T's marriage.
When Ice-T met Coco
She was 22 and he was 42. She didn't even know what a "gangster rapper" was, and let's just say, Coco and Ice-T's meet-cute was one for the ages.
"I was working as a model in California, on a movie set that Ice was doing a video for," Coco wrote on her blog. "Ice was having a grumpy day so his friend/producer for the video wanted to cheer Ice up and grabbed me. I wasn't told who I was going to meet; I was just pulled in the direction where Ice was sitting.... Then he goes on to say 'Have you ever thought about dating a Gangster rapper?' Now me being a white girl from the valley I had never heard of a 'Gangster Rapper' ... So I responded to him 'Well, If he's nice...' and Ice responds with 'Well baby if you take the N off nice you get ICE' That line made me laugh."
Now, you might think you know what Ice-T noticed first about Austin, but you might also be wrong. He recalled to the Daily Mail, "It was her teeth, they were the first things I saw...and then I saw her boobs. And then, when she turned around, that big butt." Okay, so you were pretty much right — but it was deeper than that, we swear! "There was an instant physical attraction, but I was at a point in my life where I was ready to slow down," he said, adding, "I wanted a partner."
Ice-T and Coco are truly over-the-top
This is a couple that tends to shock people — and we're not just talking about Coco Austin's outrageous fashion sense. They've also both shared some controversial details about how they keep their marriage alive. On an episode of Watch What Happens Live, Austin raised eyebrows with her answer to host Andy Cohen's question about "submitting to your husband." Coco replied, "I think all women should do it. ... I'm a slave to him. ... 15 years, it's worked out." Ice-T was even more direct when he told Howard Stern that they keep their marriage fresh with "jungle sex," which is just his unorthodox term for lots of foreplay.
The couple renewed vows in 2011, and true to form, they went big for the ceremony, which was more over-the-top than a lot of people's actual weddings. It was documented for their reality show, Ice Loves Coco. Guests included rappers Snoop Dogg and Flava Flav, and reality star Tila Tequila. Austin wore a bejeweled gown to the event, held at Hollywood's swanky W Hotel.
The couple's Halloween costumes are another example of the ways they go all-out. Austin told In Touch, "Halloween is our favorite holiday...This is the one holiday we don't really like coordinating because we do it year-round. And everybody else, couple wise, try to coordinate on this particular holiday." Austin has gone as everything from a naughty schoolgirl to Madonna, while Ice-T favors the scarier looks of slashers and psycho killers.
The couple's response to the coronavirus has been, well, very Ice-T and Coco
It would be an understatement to say there have been a few strange celebrity responses to the outbreak of the novel coronavirus, and the subsequent self-quarantine measures being taken in an attempt to stop the spread of the virus. These include, but are not limited to Vanessa Hudgens' ill-advised IG live session and ... whatever point Evangeline Lilly was trying to make about COVID-19.
For her part, Coco Austin shared a photo to her Instagram of people wearing what appeared to be re-purposed plastic jugs on their heads, causing her followers to wonder if it was real. She captioned it, "Sh**s getting serious... #coronavirus." Ice-T once again topped his wife in the shock value department, tweeting, "Probably Unpopular View: I know how many people Died from the Virus this week.... I wonder how many people got MURDERED by humans.... #CARVIVORES." Okay.
Austin's birthday fell during the quarantine, and she posted some cute snaps of her and the couple's daughter to Instagram, while Ice-T shouted his wife out on Twitter. In addition to keeping it real on social media, Ice-T is also using his time indoors to play video games and watch movies ... so maybe this couple isn't all that different from the rest of us? Wait. They had their own reality show. They are totally different from the rest of us.
The couple had their own gonzo reality show
As of this writing, the best place to follow Ice-T and Coco's antics is on social media, but for a couple of years fans got an inside view of their unique lifestyle via their reality show, Ice Loves Coco. It aired on the E! network for three seasons, from 2011 to 2013, and it was full of the couple's (and their dogs') wild antics. The show covered everything from house renovations, to luxury dog parks, to the launch of Austin's fashion line, to Ice-T's work on Law & Order. It also displayed how devoted the couple is to each other, including an episode where Austin decided not to take a film role, as it would have kept her away from Ice-T for two months. That's dedication.
The couple ended the show in 2013. Ice-T explained to HuffPost that, in spite of great ratings, he and Coco pulled the plug before they fell into the familiar trap of so many reality shows, which is to say they succumb to pressure from producers to ratchet up the drama. "[Producers] create chaos because they're trying to entertain people," he told the outlet, adding, "Trying to entertain people with your life is dangerous. It's hard to do for a long period of time. So we got in and got out."
Ice-T and Coco went from reality to daytime TV
While so much on-camera togetherness might have been too much for some couples to take, Ice-T and Coco Austin weren't done with having their own television show. After their reality series wrapped, they attempted a daytime talk show, called Ice & Coco. But they didn't just dive right in. Before they filmed it, they did some serious training. Ice-T explained to People: "We went to talk-show boot camp out in L.A. where they gave us some pointers and stuff...I've been on hundreds of talk shows, I've just never hosted 'em. So you do learn there's a lot of stuff that goes into it. Once again, we just went there and did our thing, and they were like, 'You did incredible, it was amazing.' Okay? Cool."
It aired for a three-week test-run in 2015, but ultimately wasn't picked up. Even the wackiness of the premiere episode wasn't enough to "take the talk show to a new level" as Coco put it (per The Washington Post). In fact, the same outlet gave a rundown of the bizarre intro episode, which the couple used to do all of the following: 1. Reveal that Austin was pregnant with their daughter, Chanel Nicole, of which Ice-T declared, "I told you, I can make a baby through a brick wall!" 2. Bring out Snooki (yes, that one) to dole out parenting advice. 3. Put on a puppy fashion show.
Strange? Of course. Perfectly Ice-T and Coco? 100%.
Ozzie and Harriet, they are not
You didn't expect Ice-T and Coco's parenting choices to be conventional, did you? The odd couple certainly stirred the pot when Ice-T posted a snap to Instagram of Coco Austin sleeping topless with their daughter Chanel. The fires of digital discourse ignited again when a video hit the internet of Coco and a then-two-year-old Chanel swimming with nurse sharks on a family vacation to the Bahamas. Online moms across the web cringed in fear, but Coco laughed it off, noting that the sharks "acted like dogs."
But perhaps the biggest parenting controversy the couple faces has to do with breastfeeding. While conventional wisdom regarding the practice (per The New York Times) advises moms to continue breastfeeding (if possible) until a baby is between one and two years old. Coco kept going, and she's been very open about this, posting shots of her breastfeeding Chanel, now a toddler, to Instagram.
In a similar post, Coco defended the choice, explaining the difficulty she had with breastfeeding "the 1st week of when Chanel was born," but that she hung in there because she knew the benefits "health wise and bond wise." Obviously, it's a personal choice and we don't begrudge anyone their decision in this area. But one again, Ice-T went the unorthodox route in his wife's defense. Responding to critics via TMZ, he said that this is actually only an occasional thing, when their little girl "wants to get close to her mom." He added, "She eats f***ing cheeseburgers!"
Do Coco and Ice-T really not understand cultural appropriation?
Ice-T has also stood up for his wife when people accused her of cultural appropriation. When Coco debuted an eponymous, braided hairstyle on Instagram, the internet responded, and not happily, suggesting she was guilty of taking and even taking cultural appropriation to an even more offensive point. At the time, Austin defended herself, saying, "I name all my styles that I do to myself. These are called the Coco swoop, the braids before Bo Derek braids, and it's a Coco-ism. I've always done it. Why can't we all rename hairstyles or braids? That's so stupid. Why is everybody claiming something they shouldn't?"
Ice-T, of course, also took on the critics, tweeting, "Wrong for what? Braiding her hair?? You sound Dumb." The source of the offense was not necessarily the braids themselves, but Coco seeming to name them after herself, when the style has actually been part of black culture for generations. Granted, it's natural to want to defend oneself from the internet mob, but it's a little odd that neither Ice-T nor Coco seemed to even remotely understand where her critics were coming from.
As outlandish as they are, Ice-T and Coco are still #relationshipgoals
Ice-T and Coco have been married since 2002, which is a very long time by Hollywood standards. They clearly enjoy being parents, and seem to be truly in love, despite how strange as their relationship may seem to outsiders. And it was that way from the beginning, as Coco shared in a throwback Austin recently shared an throwback Instagram pic of the pair captioned, "I was 22 years old and very smitten by him but most of all he made me laugh."
Becoming parents seems to have only strengthened their bond, too. Of being a mom to Chanel, Coco told ET, "I mean, [she's] like my real-life doll. I get to dress her up and we get to match all day. It's funny. I didn't even think I was going to be that parent, but I turned into one." Speaking with the same outlet, Ice-T said, "I mean, [Chanel] has absolute control over me. I can't lie. I mean, she's so cute and she's really smart ... she's real fun. It's like the best thing that happened to us."
When asked about how they've stayed together all these years, Ice-T told Celebuzz that "breaking up" isn't "part of the plan." He also credited their relationship longevity to "great communication" and having similar careers. "You gotta stay on the same team," he said.