If you couldn’t get enough of the love (and sometimes raunch) fest that is Teyana Taylor and Iman Shumpert’s relationship on Instagram, you will be happy to know that the pair just obtained their own spread in GQ magazine. Co-stars include their adorable daughter, Junie, and a whole boatload of leopard, zebra and cheetah prints. The theme? Opulence meets Peg Bundy meets Love and Basketball.
Inside the pages, the twosome talked about married life, including how they find time for one another when he’s traveling for games (Shumpert plays for the Cleveland Cavaliers in case you didn’t know) and she’s touring or popping up at much-ballyhooed fashion shows. They also opened up about how they tied the knot, which was done covertly. They reportedly exchanged vows last year at home in front of the bathroom Taylor pushed Junie out of in December 2015:
“I mean what made that so dope is because—we’ve never shared this—but we literally got married in our room in front of our bathroom here where Junie was born, so it was very special,” Taylor said. “That was definitely a major, major highlight of the year and one of the best things of my life.”
She continued, “It was like our bathroom in our room, so right in front of the bathroom. We have double doors, so we opened the doors. Pretty much, we got married at the crime scene. It was a really special moment to get married in that home period.”
And as sexy of a couple as they are, Taylor admits that when they’re at home, they spend most of their time not getting cozy in showers as we witnessed in “Fade,” but running after Junie, who is a year old now.
“We’re busy looking for Junie,” Taylor said. “Because she’s crawling and trying to walk now, and my husband’s like, ‘Okay, Junie’s way too quiet. Where’s Junie?’ She walked somewhere, and she’s like twelve steps up with something in her mouth that should not be in her mouth. The majority of the time, we’ll put Junie [down to] nap, and we love naps, all three of us. Junie, man, Junie’s the best. Because she kind of just be rolling with the homies, she’s cool with the vibe. We sleep, she sleeps. We’re up, she’s up. We move around, she moves around. Except when me and Iman be lovey-dovey, then she can be cock-blockin’.”
And as for their bond as a couple, Taylor told GQ that it’s only grown stronger as people have attempted to drive a wedge into their relationship with faulty rumors. They don’t play that.
“I think what other people would consider a struggle is the fact that when you are doing good, there’s always people that want to bring you down and see you fail,” she said. “So they’re going to do whatever it takes to try and make that happen. But I think what has made us strong is we have put [in] a lot of years and a lot of love. So it was like, at this point, nobody can really break us apart. We don’t have any struggle with regards to that because it’s like people’s stories aren’t good enough. It’s almost like, ‘Okay, you said you did this—literally me, him, and Junie were just at practice, [or] we were just at my soundcheck, so when does he have time to do that?'”
How can you not love these two?
This is just a taste of the images from the shoot with photog Ellen von Unwerth. You can check out the rest over at GQ.com.
