Source: Moses Robinson / Getty
Monica is ready to get back out there and date. The 39-year-old singer did an Instagram Live with friends T.I. and Tiny recently. The 39-year-old mother of three shared what she was looking for in terms of a partner after finalizing her divorce to former NBA player Shannon Brown last year. To start, she said she was looking for a guy between the ages of 32 and 42.
“I can find my sweet spot somewhere in there,” she said, though she claimed she could be open to someone a tad bit older if he had his stuff together. “Maybe I could push it to like 49.”
The star said she was ready to get back out there because she had spent a lot of time working on herself. A “self-check” is a practice the “Love All Over Me” singer says she does after every breakup.
“I just took a whole bunch of time to just get me together,” she said. “Each time something doesn’t work, I do a self-check. That’s why I stayed single so long this time because I wanted to do a self-check. This whole year has been about self-evaluating, self-mediation, self, self, self, so I could figure out, were there places where maybe I contributed? That takes a lot. It’s not easy.”
She said she was open to a blind date set up by T.I. and Tiny (“I’ve never done that”), and also heard recommendations of possible suitors from fans and followers listening in on the chat. Someone on IG recommended she get with Usher, and that was a no for everyone involved in the call.
“We like siblings” Monica said. “And contrary to popular belief, we never dated or anything.”
David Banner and Common‘s names also came up, and she said she didn’t know them like that to agree.
One familiar name that came up though was rapper Rocko, her ex-boyfriend, father of sons Rodney and Romelo and the inspiration behind “So Gone.” When the idea of the two reuniting came up, the star didn’t shut it down completely.
“We been apart for 10 years and over the last few, I would say over the last six months, he really has become one of my best friends,” she said. “Because see what people don’t understand is, when you raise kids together, stuff starts going in stages.”
While they went through stages of disagreement, she says they’re now “the best of friends.”
T.I. jumped in and agreed that they should get back together, claiming, “Y’all meant for each other. I think y’all the only ones that can handle one another’s type.”
However, Rocko is presently taken.
“He’s in a relationship and we have not dealt with each other at all in 10 and a half years,” she said.
Not wanting to “upset his house,” she moved on and said she was open to dating an everyday man as opposed to just another celebrity or going back down memory lane with an ex.
“It does not have to be somebody famous at all,” she said. “It definitely has to be somebody though that can handle what fame brings.”
Not only that, but Monica said the next man in her life also needs to be able to take the lead in their relationship, because she’s too busy to take on or share the responsibility.
“I really want somebody that can be the head and not the tail because I like to be led, but I love to be led right,” she said. “You handle it! I gotta do that on my job. I gotta orchestrate, handle, tell people what to do, what time to do it, how to do it, which way I want it done. I don’t wan’t to do that at home. Please take over!”
For the record though, while she’s ready to test the waters and has a certain idea about what she does and doesn’t want in the next man, she still has nothing but good things to say about her years with Shannon.
“I’m proud of what my marriage was,” she said. “It lasted nine years, I have an amazing daughter. I learned a lot, I lived a lot, I wasn’t looking for nothin’ when we met. I hadn’t heard of him. I didn’t know who he was. My boys were super small so I wasn’t watching sports. I didn’t know who he was at all. But it happened because it was supposed to happen.”
Monica and Shannon married in November 2010 before divorcing in 2019. They share daughter Laiyah together. Before that union, she was in a long-term, on-again, off-again relationship with Rocko, which started 2000 before ending in March 2010 following cheating rumors and an announcement she made on Twitter. She said then that she and Rocko would always be “family.”
“Thank you everyone for all the love your [sic] sending. @Rocko4Real is a great father and we will continue to love and parent our children,” she wrote. “The rest is a private matter between @Rocko4Real and I. He is a good person. We all make mistakes. Even seperated [sic] we will always be family…”
So what do you think of a reconciliation between the two down the line? She doesn’t necessarily seem for it, but she didn’t sound 100 percent against it, either.
