Listen, love and marriage are subjective and personal – so we like to keep an open mind when it comes to people’s amorous adventures. Still, we can’t help but feel just a tad exhausted by the four-way love fest that is this rapper’s love life. After all, it’s tiring enough tending to the wants and needs of one significant other, but three? Sounds like work to us.
Last week, the singer's unconventional set-up hit the headlines, after he posted a series of photos of him cuddling up his three 'wives' – who all call him 'Daddy'.
In no particular order, OnlyFans model Bella (who goes by the name 'Daddy’s Pretty Baby' on social media), her fellow OnlyFans creator Phoenix Feather, and widely-described 'party girl' Arielle Hill all hold the great honour of being loved-up with 2000s crooner, Ne-Yo. The foursome apparently travels as a pack, cosying up for loved-up shots together as a happy quadruple, and supporting each other in real life on social media. Recent pictures of them popping bottles in nightclubs and posing in their skimpies on yachts, while accompanying Ne-Yo on tour around the world, suggest they’re really making the most out of their very modern marriage.
Each 'wife' (though none of the women are legally married to Ne-Yo) has committed to her other 'wifeys', and their 'Daddy' on Instagram, with all four seemingly delighted by their union. From an outsider’s perspective, it certainly seems like everyone’s getting their needs met. Solid work all round.
Still, Ne-Yo’s belief that love should be multiplied, not divided has unquestionably caused some issues in the past, not least with the women he’s previously been involved with.
The performer, who’s best known for songs including Closer and Give Me Everything, was previously married from 2016 to 2023 to reality star Crystal Renay, with whom he shares three children – Shaffer Jr, eight, Roman, six, and Isabella (he’s also dad to four other children – Madilyn, 14, Mason, 13, Braiden, three, and Brixton, two, from other relationships).
After his and Crystal’s marriage broke down, she gave a less than subtle nod to his wandering eye, and inability to commit to one woman. Taking to Instagram, she wrote, 'Eight years. Eight years of lies and deception. Eight years unknowingly sharing my life and husband with numerous women… To say I’m heartbroken and disgusted is an understatement. To ask me to stay and accept it is insane. The mentality of a narcissist. I choose me, I choose happiness and health and my respect. I gained three beautiful children out of this but nothing else but wasted years and heartache.' She later revealed that she’d never have married him if she knew he believed in polyamory.
Likewise, Ne-Yo’s former girlfriend Monyetta Shaw has also opened up about his predilections for having multiple partners, saying that her former attempts to placate him with threesomes simply weren’t enough for him.
'We cheated together, if that makes sense,' she said on a podcast in 2023, holding up three fingers to illustrate the scenario. 'We did things together. It’s not cheating if you’re involved with it…and then it just wasn’t enough [for him]. I was like, "Well, no, I didn’t sign up to do this every day." It became a problem when he wanted that a lot.'
As for Ne-Yo, despite entering ostensibly monogamous relationships in the past (only to then cheat on his partners), it now seems he’s fully, unapologetically embracing the polyamorous lifestyle. He previously told TMZ, 'Legalizing polygamy? I didn’t know it was illegal. You should let people do whatever the hell they want to do. Can’t see how it’s hurting anybody. To be honest, I don’t need the government to tell me what I can and can’t do in my personal life.'
He has also said in the past that there’s 'no cap' on the amount of girlfriends he can handle, arguing it comes down to 'as many as you can afford'.
It certainly seems like he’s put his money where his mouth is – flaunting his four-way love-fest for the world to see on social media, while also giving each 'wife' the love and attention she deserves with individual posts dedicated to Bella, Phoenix, Arielle. They, in turn, seem to be fully aware and consenting of the set up. Previous hashtags they’ve each used to defend their bond include #PolyAndFly, #MyWifeys and #123.
Taking to Instagram last week, Phoenix defended the quadruple’s set-up, posting in a caption, alongside the four of them getting amorous on a boat, 'Yes we’re in the public eye and we know people are gonna voice their opinion that’s what’s expected but y’all need to understand over here it’s a solid foundation we understand each other we stand on 10 when it comes to each other a lot people will never understand that and that’s cool just know it’s US VS Nobody'.
It may be unconventional, but let’s not forget the other famous faces who have toed the line of a modern, multi-person relationship. Hugh Hefner, of course, was the first to espouse the merits of having three girlfriends, Holly Madison, Bridget Marquardt, and Kendra Wilkinson (who each probably welcomed the fact it meant having to spend less intimate time with the then-geriatric publisher). There’s also boxer David Hayes, who’s engaged in various throuples with his girlfriend Sian Osborne – including an alleged three-way dalliance with former Saturdays star Una Healy last year (which she denied). But Ne-Yo’s modern set-up has certainly taken things to the next level, and he himself admits his lifestyle is not for everybody.
Speaking again to TMZ, the rapper said, 'I don’t recommend anything to anybody. What works for me might not work for you, or vice versa.'
So, there you have it, folks. Just because Ne-Yo has three non-legally binding wives who follow him around the world, venerate him and call him Daddy, it doesn’t mean you have to, too. Good to know.