Actress and comedienne Kym Whitley is getting candid about her former romance with the late R&B singer Gerald Levert.
As quiet as it’s been kept, Kym and Gerald were more than just a celebrity couple fling. During the Valentine’s Day taping of her “Two Funny Mamas” podcast with friend, comedienne, and co-host Sherri Shepherd, the actress spoke about the feelings she still harbored for the singer.
According to Kym, the pair met in their childhood hometown of Cleveland, Ohio. They started as friends, but their relationship quickly branched off into a more romantic connection. The “My Brother and Me” star claimed that the singer even wrote songs about her, including his ’80s single “Addicted to You.”
“I called him one day … and I said, ‘I’m addicted to you.’ He said, ‘I’m addicted to you.’ And we started talking, and I said, ‘That’s a song, Gerald!’ He made the song.”
Despite efforts to create a stable union, Kym said Gerald’s fame and adoring fans, coupled with her burgeoning career as an aspiring actress and comedian, complicated things. Kym revealed her career knotted several relationships for her.
“Gerald needed a wife. He needed a real wife at home. He didn’t need an actress,” she explained. “I didn’t understand that then, and I remember [when he told me] it hurt my feelings. He said, ‘There can only be one star in this family.’”
Kym said they remained close as she became a listening ear when he had trouble with girlfriends and even a fiancée.
The “Mr. Too Damn Good” singer eventually fathered three children with three women, a series of developments the actress said the singer confided to her. “I wish I would’ve been smarter,” he previously said. “But at the same time, I’ve enjoyed my life so far and wouldn’t change it, especially my kids.”
Gerald passed away in 2006 at the age of 40 after an overdose of a combination of prescription medication and over-the-counter drugs. He was never married, and neither was Kym.
“We made a pact,” the actress revealed. “We said when we turn 50 years old … If we’re not married at 50, we will marry each other.”
She continued, “I will always love Gerald because it was a chapter in my life, I was so young. We went through so much as young people that I would say, I won’t say scared me, but there were some things that happened with us that will make you as you grow up look back and say, ‘I guess I could have handled that differently.’”
Kym felt the singer was the one who got away, and, evidently, the feelings were mutual. She explained that Gerald did an interview back in the day with Sister 2 Sister Magazine in which he declared the actress his one true love.
“It destroyed all kinda relationships,” she said. “At the time I was engaged, [her fiancé] broke up with me from that one article.”
Kym admitted that she “wished he was still here,” saying that things would be different even if they were just friends.
