Angie Stone has two children from her previous relationships, but she said she had the most difficulty co-parenting with her son’s father, D’Angelo.
The two neo-soul acts, who dated in the mid-1990s, share Michael D’Angelo Archer II, who was born in 1998. Despite their being past lovers, the “Brotha” singer previously stated that D’Angelo’s “pride” was the cause of their inability to reconnect musically.
“He was the love of my life. I am not ashamed of it,” Stone said during a recent interview with radio personality Jazmyn Summers. “I’ll tell anybody when you find true love, it’s undeniable. You can’t deny true love.”
She described their relationship as a love that she “had never experienced before,” noting that it felt like “a death happened” when she and the “Brown Sugar” vocalist split.
The 61-year-old said she doesn’t bother trying to “replace” D’Angelo or the love she experienced with him because “when it’s perfect, how do you find that perfect one again?”
Stone was in her early 30s when she began dating the “Voodoo” singer, who is nearly 12 years younger than her. She said their relationship was portrayed to the world as if she loved him more than he loved her, but she claims their love was “equally matched.”
“But it’s sad because he was made to feel awkward for loving and the reality is you can’t help who you love,” Stone added. “I overcame it because I prayed a lot and I trusted God.”
Their son Michael is 25 now. But according to his mom, it was fairly “difficult” to co-parent with D’Angelo when he was younger.
“It has been very difficult because if you’re made to feel inadequate about who you love, how in the world do you move into how to love anyone connected? The love is real,” Stone expressed. “I won’t tell you that he doesn’t love his son because he absolutely loves his son. But it puts people in a awkward position when you think the world is watching … and you already have insecurities.”
She continued, “My job as a mom is to secure his my son’s place in his heart and in my heart so that my son knows that does not translate into ‘I don’t love you.’ It translates into ‘I don’t know to do this.’ ”
The mother of two was then asked about her new and current marriage to a man named Ashanti Graves. The two had been on and off for years and were engaged in 2020, according to reports. She said they eventually got married, but now she claims the relationship is over.
“I found out some things about the young man after we went into this whole process,” she admitted at the 14:10 mark of the interview. “Before I could get settled in that good, I was already filing for an annulment or a divorce because I am Angie Stone and I have to be very careful of the people that are in my space.”
She said, “Once again I was vulnerable to love and that’s the problem with finding love in all the wrong places. I just believe that people were waiting on me…waiting on the dust to settle so they could get in and take advantage.”
The Grammy-nominated artist said she was left with no other choice but to walk “away.” She was also asked about her daughter, Diamond, whom she shares with her first husband, fellow singer Lil’ Rodney Cee.
In 2015, Stone was arrested for assaulting her then-30-year-old daughter. She allegedly knocked out her two front teeth with a metal object due to her daughter reportedly not cleaning up after her smaller children. She previously claimed that Diamond assaulted her by punching her during the altercation.
The singer said she and her daughter are in the “best position that we’ve ever been in,” noting that both of her children now run her company.
