It looks like Nazanin Mandi and Miguel may have rekindled their relationship. The two shocked everyone when they announced that they were splitting up in Sept. 2021 in a joint statement which also stated that they were separated for some time. Prior to that, the couple were together for 17 years and married for three. However, the model has dropped hints that they may be back together.
Miguel made a recent appearance on her Instagram page and she re-added the singer’s last name to her name on her Instagram bio. Unarchived photos of the couple have also reappeared on her page.
But this isn’t the first time the couple has broken up, Nazanin revealed in her now-defunct podcast that the couple had broken up before getting married and that therapy helped them make it down the aisle in 2019.
So it begs the question, do breakups strengthen relationships?
Nazanin and Miguel aren’t the only celebs who have broken up before ending up in a more healthy and lasting union. Here are some other celebrities who broke up, made up, and have been successful.
Cardi B and Offset
Cardi B and Offset’s relationship was plagued with cheating rumors from the beginning, however, the couple has made it through.
The couple had a whirlwind romance after they reportedly began dating in early 2017, got married in September 2017, and welcomed their daughter Kulture in 2018.
But due to Offset’s cheating, Cardi announced that they were splitting up in December 2018. The Migos rapper made several public attempts to win Bardi back and he was eventually successful.
The couple got back together at the top of 2019 and now they share two children. In a 2019 interview with Vogue, the Bronx rapper revealed why she took Offset back and how they were able to work it out.
“Everybody has issues. I believe in forgiveness. I prayed on it. Me and my husband, we prayed on it. We had priests come to us,” she said.
“And we just came to an understanding like, bro, it’s really us against the world. He has my back for everything, I have his back for everything, so when you cheat, you’re betraying the person that has your back the most,” she added. “Why would you do that? We have come to a clear understanding. For me, monogamy is the only way. I’ll beat your a– if you cheat on me.”
Ne-Yo and Crystal Smith
Ne-Yo and his wife Crystal Smith were together for four years before the singer filed for divorce in 2020. However, when the pandemic hit, everything changed.
The “So Sick” artist spoke with Good Morning Britain about their divorce and what made them reconcile. We were talking full-on divorce,” the singer said in October 2021. “It forced us to sit down and talk about our problems and reconnect with our kids.”
He continued, “The pandemic saved my marriage. There’s only so much FaceTime you can do. In the pandemic, we lost a lot of people, but in my case, it helped a lot of instances in my life. We had brutally honest conversations.”
In June 2021, they welcomed their third child.
Gabrielle Union and Dwyane Wade
Before getting married in 2014, Gabrielle Union and Dwyane Wade took a break in 2013, and during that time the retired NBA star fathered another child.
Gabrielle now has a child of her own, Kaavia James Union Wade, which she had via surrogate after countless unsuccessful attempts to get pregnant.
The couple seems to be experiencing happier times, but the actress did reveal in her second memoir You Got Anything Stronger? that the woman she is today would not have stayed with Dwyane after he fathered another child.
“The 'me' of today would not have stayed with him, but would I be who I am now without that pain? That fiery explosion that created life and light? The advice I would give myself now would be to leave. ‘You don’t have to do this. You don’t think you have an option, but you do. Save yourself,’” she wrote.
Beyoncé and Jay-Z
Beyoncé toldSeventeen magazine that she was 19 years old when she began dating Jay-Z and in 2002 they collaborated for “03’ Bonnie & Clyde.”
However, they were rumored to break up in 2005 but eventually got back together a year later. The couple got married in 2008 and in 2016, the singer dropped her groundbreaking album Lemonade where she alluded to the “Holy Grail” rapper cheating in their marriage.
The album detailed how the couple worked on their relationship and now after 13 years of marriage, the couple has three children and they have collaborated on many projects together such as a joint album, a joint tour, and most recently Tiffany & Co.’s About Love campaign.
Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck
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Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck aka Bennifer reunited in 2021 after the singer ended her engagement to Alex Rodrigeuz.
However, the couple first began their relationship in 2002 after they met during the filming of Gigli. During that time, Jennifer was in the process of divorcing her second husband Cris Judd, and months later she and Ben got engaged. Their wedding was set for September 2003 but was canceled and the duo broke up in 2004.
They separately pursued relationships with other people. Jennifer ended up marrying fellow singer Marc Anthony and the actor married Jennifer Garner. Years went by and in April 2021, Bennifer was rumored to be back together and the following month, they were spotted out together.
Since then they have made multiple appearances together including Jennifer’s Instagram in July 2021 where they celebrated her 52nd birthday on a yacht in France. In September 2021, the Gone Girl actor gushed over Jennifer after she was named Adweek's 2021 Brand Visionary.
“I am in awe of what Jennifer's effect on the world is,” he said. “At most, as an artist, I can make movies that move people. Jennifer has inspired a massive group of people to feel they have a seat at the table in this country. That is an effect few people throughout history have had, one I will never know and one I can only stand by and admire with respect."
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While speaking to xoNecole, Eva shares that she’s a lot like the beloved 1994 character in many ways. “Lyric is so me. She's the odd flower. A flower nonetheless, but definitely not a peony,” she tells us.
“She's not the average flower you see presented, and so she reminds me of myself. I'm a sunflower, beautiful, but different. And what I loved about her character then, and even more so now, is that she was very sure of herself.
"Sure of what she wanted in life and okay to sacrifice her moments right now, to get what she knew she deserved later. And that is me. I'm not an instant gratification kind of a person. I am a long game. I'm not a sprinter, I'm a marathon.
America first fell in love with Eva when she graced our screens on cycle 3 of America’s Next Top Model in 2004, which she emerged as the winner. Since then, she's ventured into different avenues, from acting on various TV series like House of Payne to starring on Real Housewives of Atlanta.
Je-Caryous Johnson Entertainment
Eva praises her castmates and the play’s producer, Je’Caryous for her positive experience. “You know what? Je’Caryous fuels my audacity car daily, ‘cause I consider myself an extremely audacious woman, and I believe in what I know, even if no one else knows it, because God gave it to me. So I know what I know. That is who Je’Caryous is.”
But the mom of three isn’t the only one in the family who enjoys acting. Eva reveals her daughter Marley has also caught the acting bug.
“It is the most adorable thing you can ever see. She’s got a part in her school play. She's in her chorus, and she loves it,” she says. “I don't know if she loves it, because it's like, mommy does it, so maybe I should do it, but there is something about her.”
Overall, Eva hopes that her contribution to the role and the play as a whole serves as motivation for others to reach for the stars.
“I want them to walk out with hope. I want them to re-vision their dreams. Whatever they were. Whatever they are. To re-see them and then have that thing inside of them say, ‘You know what? I'm going to do that. Whatever dream you put on the back burner, go pick it up.
"Whatever dream you've accomplished, make a new dream, but continue to reach for the stars. Continue to reach for what is beyond what people say we can do, especially as [a] Black collective but especially as Black women. When it comes to us and who we are and what we accept and what we're worth, it's not about having seen it before. It's about knowing that I deserve it.”
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
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Fortunately, five simple words have simplified my dating process and ushered in clarity faster: “Would my husband do this?”
A couple of years ago, I met an entertainment lawyer who was tonguing down a twenty-something-year-old woman for breakfast while I slurped my green smoothie and chomped on a flatbread sandwich. Okay, Black love, I grinned and thought as I sauntered out of the Joe & The Juice. As soon as I stepped down from the front door, a torrential downpour of Miami summer rain cascaded and throttled me back inside to wait out the storm.
I grabbed a hot green tea and vacillated between peering out the wet door and anxiously checking my watch. My lengthy agenda started with attending the Tabitha Brown and Chance Brown’s “Black Love” panel, and I was already late. That’s when the lawyer introduced himself to me, after he made a joke about neither one of us wanting to get soaked by the rain. His female companion had braved the storm, leaving us to find our commonalities.
We both lived in L.A. and had traveled to the American Black Film Festival to expand our network. He represented various artists, including entertainment writers, while I was working as a writer/creative producer in Hollywood.
While there is no shortage of internet advice on how to strategically meet a prominent man at conferences, if I spend my hard-earned funds on career growth, I have tunnel vision, and that doesn’t include finding Mr. Right. So, I stowed his contact details away as strictly professional.
Keep It Cute Love And Hip Hop GIFGiphyAs the humidity and mosquitoes were rising around L.A., two months later, another suitor-turned-terrible match cooled off after three unimpressive dates and a bevy of red flags. I posted what some of my friends called a thirst trap, but it was really me wearing a black freakum jumpsuit with a plunging neckline to my friend’s 35th birthday soiree despite feeling oh, so unsexy and bloated on my cycle.
I’d been waiting to post a sassy caption and finally had the perfect picture to match: “You not asking for too much, you just asking the wrong MF.”
That’s when the entertainment lawyer swooped into my DMs and asked me to dinner. I was quite confused. Is he asking me on a date? Or is this professional? Common sense would’ve picked the former. Once it clicked that this would in fact be a date, I told my mentor, who’s been happily married for over twenty years and has often been a guiding light and has steered me away from the wrong men.
Upon telling him about how we met, he emphatically stated, “He ain’t it.” He followed up with a simple question, "You have to ask yourself: Would my husband do this? Would you tell others that you met your husband, tonguing down another woman, and later married him?"
Aint It No Way GIF by UFCGiphyOuch. The thought-provoking question cleared any haze. Prior to going out with the lawyer, the first thing I inquired about was the woman.
“You saw that?” He said, taken aback that I’d witnessed his steamy PDA. Surely, anyone with two open eyes peeped him caressing her backside as he kissed her in the middle of the coffee shop.
He brushed her off as a casual someone he’d gone on a couple of dates with but had since stopped talking to. He said he hadn’t been in a serious relationship in over three years. Though I was still doubtful, dating in L.A. is treacherous and ephemeral. Making it past three months is considered a rarity.
With my antennae alert, I dined with him at a cozy beachside steakhouse restaurant where we were serenaded by a live jazz band. I’d emphasized forming a platonic friendship first.
Break Up Friendship GIF by TLCGiphy“I’ll come to you,” he obliged. I liked that he had made me a priority by driving over 50 miles to see me. I also liked the effort he made to check in with me daily. But I still couldn’t wrap my head around the fact that he initiated on a professional pretense and then alley hooped through the back door on a romantic venture, which bombarded me with confusion.
If there’s one thing I’ve learned in my dating life, God is not the author of confusion; any man who brings confusion, rather than clarity, is simply not The One. It doesn’t matter how many boxes he checks–eventually, that confusion will manifest itself into bigger problems, in time.
After diving into deeper conversations on the phone, post our first dinner date, I quickly realized this man was indeed not The One for me. But I’m grateful for the valuable lesson I learned.
I don’t expect some unattainable fairytale of a husband; we all have our own flaws and conflict is inevitable, but after dating for two decades, through failure and success, I’ve realized that the person I ultimately marry must mirror the values I exert into the world. He must reciprocate kindness, patience, and respect. He must be quick to listen and slow to respond. He needs to be forgiving and trustworthy, practice healthy communication, and be a man of his word at the bare minimum.
If I’d had “Would my husband do this?” in my toolbox when I was dating and floundering in stagnant relationships, in my twenties, it would’ve saved me a lot of precious time. But now that I’m equipped with the reminder, it’s allowed me to ground myself in my non-negotiables and set/maintain the standard for the special person, I’ll one day say, “I do,” to.
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