It seems that director Antoine Fuqua has some explaining to do, because he’s married to actress Lela Rochon but was seen kissing Nicole Murphy in a photo.
The picture was snapped last weekend when Fuqua and Murphy were at a hotel in Ischia, Italy, where the director was in town for the Ischia Global Festival. He was there to receive an award for director of the year.
In the photo, the 53-year-old Fuqua and the 51-year-old Murphy can be seen kissing square on the lips. Murphy is sporting a multi-colored bikini in the shot, while “The Equalizer 2” director is shirtless and wearing a towel.
Reportedly, they were drinking coffee together and then took a dip in the swimming pool afterward.
Fuqua married Rochon in 1999, and they have a daughter as well as a son — Asia, who’s 16, and Brando, 15. Fuqua has a son from a previous relationship as well.
But according to a report and published documents, he’s fathered two other children outside of his marriage. One with a woman named Ruth Jimenez, with whom he has a son named Roman Jimenez.
Allegedly, the court ordered Fuqua to pay Ruth Jiminez $10,000 a month in child support in August 2010 after he was $86,000 behind in payments. He also allegedly asked the courts to lower those payments to $3,134.
It’s also been alleged that Fuqua fathered another child with a British model, and that woman showed up to his house in Southern California unannounced and caused a scene. She also threatened to tell Rochon about the supposed lovechild.
Murphy was married to actor and comedian Eddie Murphy from 1993-2006, and they have five children ranging from ages 17 to 26.
She was also engaged to former NFL player and current “Good Morning America” host Michael Strahan until they called it off in 2014.
Rochon has deleted her Instagram and Twitter pages since the kissing photo surfaced. Meanwhile, Murphy issued a statement and said the kiss was completely harmless.
“Antoine and I are just family friends,” she said. “I ran into him in Italy and we exchanged a friendly hello and that was it.”
