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About a week ago, I read a comment online suggesting that Tyrese and his wife Samantha Gibson had separated. As with most celebrity couples, his Instagram profile told the story before any formal statements were released.
Samantha, a once prominent presence on his page, was noticeably absent.
And as of last night, the news is official.
In a statement shared via Instagram, Tyrese and Samantha announced that they had decided to end their marriage.
With a picture of the two during happier times, the statement read:
“We have decided to make a statement of a painful and significant development in our lives. After much thought, consideration, and prayer, We unfortunately have made the difficult decision to officially separate & divorce. Our intention is to remain the best of friends & strong coparents. We feel incredibly blessed to have found each other and deeply grateful for the 4 years we have been married to each other. Our journey together has been a ride of both ups & downs, but it’s a journey that neither of us would have chosen to take with anyone else. We truly have so much love & respect for each other. We both have grown tremendously within this relationship; we have shared so many beautiful memories and moments, and we also look forward to see the amazing futures we have ahead of us individually. As if 2020 hasn’t already been extremely grueling and challenging to us all we wanted to mutually speak on this now to keep this energy in 2020 and not take this energy into 2021. We would really appreciate your most sincere prayers and to respect our privacy at this time as we deal with the reality of where we are.
Thank you,
Sincerely & Respectfully,
Samantha & Tyrese Gibson”
Later, in a nearly eight-minute video Tyrese shared images and videos of himself, Samantha and the daughter they share together, Soraya Lee Gibson, with a song called “Better Days.”
While the statement didn’t offer an explanation for their separation, he sings that the couple allowed people to get in their ears and it became “you against me.” Later, he croons, “I’m not too proud to admit I lost my best friend and I’m lonely. I don’t care about this house on the hill. I just want my baby back here.”
It’s clear from the lyrics and the caption that Tyrese s wishing and hoping for reconciliation.
In the caption for the video, Tyrese asks with the lack of examples many of us have seen of loving, healthy relationships, “How can we naturally know how to BE something we were never raised by? Most of us were raised in broken homes with NO examples of what being a husband, wife or FATHER is….”
He also addresses Samantha, telling her that he did the very best he could and that she gave him five years of magic.
“Samantha Gibson, I owe you everything. I am a better man of God, friend, and father because of you…
I pray we leave the door open because the God that we serve is a mountains mover and can make a way out of no way…..”
He closed the caption with “Your forever husband, King Gibson.”
Samantha shared the same statement Tyrese did. Underneath the post, Tyrese shared the same comment about Black families being under attack on her statement.
According to TMZ, Tyrese and Samantha tied the knot in 2017, on Valentine’s Day after meeting through mutual friends. The two were first seen together in December of 2016.
Before they married, Samantha, whose maiden name is Lee, was a social worker who fought for children and human trafficking victims.
Religion was apparently very important to the couple and Tyrese shared that after abstaining from sex for 60 days before they got married, the two of them had become “born again virgins.”
While we will likely never know the origins of their problems, last year, in an interview with ESSENCE, Tyrese said “I checked off every box in the world to say to her, leave me.” But at the time, it was a testament to how committed the two, and Samantha specifically, were to their marriage.
A year later, things are a bit different now.
I’m sure there will be more to this story as the days and weeks roll on. We’ll be sure to keep you posted.
