Actress Candice Patton and retired NBA player J.R. Smith have just welcomed a baby boy. However, there’s some drama, as Smith is still married to his wife, Shirley “Jewel” Smith, who is the mother of his two daughters.
Candice shared the happy news on social media on Friday, Sept. 27, around 4 p.m. She posted a series of pictures and a video showing the baby’s feet, with both parents’ hands touching him. The tattoos on the father’s arms gave away that J.R. Smith was the dad.
J.R. Smith reportedly welcomed his first son with actress Candice Patton despite still being married. (Photos by Rich Schultz/Getty Images; @candicepatton/Instagram)
Candice Patton wrote in her post, “Son in Virgo. Born at home. Heart now beats outside of my chest. In love forevermore.” She didn’t say exactly when the baby was born, but it seems he was born in the last month.
A gossip site shared her post, including a picture that showed J.R. Smith’s tattoos. People’s comments on the post were a mix of congratulations and surprise.
People had a lot to say about Candice Patton and J.R. Smith’s baby news. One person wrote, “That’s not his wife?!” while another said, “Awww, he finally got his boy! But I thought he was back with his wife?”
One commenter reminded everyone, “Lmaooo I loved her down, but didn’t you say a few years ago you were going to pray for JR Smith’s wife after she accused you of having an affair? This is interesting.”
Others pointed out that Smith has been accused of cheating before. One person said, “He’s been cheating on his wife for years, starting with Tahiry Jose.”
Some people remembered when his wife called them out for having an affair. Another commenter asked, “Didn’t he have a problem with one of his kids being sick? Now he’s having more kids?”
One person even said, “The way he treated his wife, especially after her last difficult pregnancy, he won’t prosper.”
Five years ago, Smith’s wife, Jewel, publicly talked about the affair on Instagram Live and asked for divine help.
Jewel Smith, J.R. Smith’s wife, shared a video on Instagram where she said she felt like God was guiding her to pray for her husband and Candice Patton, who were rumored to be involved. She prayed for J.R., asking God to help him and fix anything that was wrong with him. She also prayed for Candice, asking God to give her mercy for seeking a married man.
At the time, neither J.R. nor Candice confirmed or denied the relationship. But J.R. made a post on Instagram in December 2019, saying he and his wife had been separated for months. He added that Instagram wasn’t the right place for relationship updates.
Rumors about J.R. and Candice being together started after they were seen at a Halloween party in October 2019. A photo of them together was even posted by “Riverdale” star Vanessa Morgan.
Although J.R. said he and his wife were separated, they seemed to get back together briefly in January 2020 to celebrate one of their daughters’ birthdays.
Later in 2020, Jewel posted some photos on Instagram, and J.R. liked them, which led people to wonder if they were getting back together. However, if they did reconcile, it didn’t last long.
In 2022, J.R.’s daughter’s Instagram page wished him a Happy Father’s Day, and more recently, the account posted a message for his birthday on September 9, 2023.
J.R. now has four children. He’s currently a senior at North Carolina A&T and plays on the school’s golf team. He and Jewel have two daughters, Dakota (7) and Denver (4). J.R. also has a 15-year-old daughter, Demi, from a previous relationship, and Jewel has a daughter named Peyton from a relationship before she married J.R.
‘DWTS’ star, mocked as orphan for spotty skin, dies at 29, – adoptive mom dies next day
The ballet world is mourning the death of Dancing with the Stars’ Michaela Mabinty DePrince, an inspirational ballerina who beat staggering odds to become one of the world’s most famous dancers.
Michaela, an orphan from war-torn Sierra Leone, was a dancer with the Boston Ballet who gained widespread notoriety after starring in the 2011 documentary First Position. She died September 10 at only 29.
Adding to the family’s tragic loss, Michaela’s adoptive mom – who rescued Michaela from the filthy shelter where she was told she was “too ugly” to find a family – died only 24 hours later.
After her father was brutally killed in war-torn Sierra Leone and her mother died from fever, four-year-old Michaela Mabinty DePrince was abandoned by her uncle in a shelter where staff every day tried to break her spirit.
Known then as “Number 27” a young Michaela had little hope of finding a family as she had vitiligo, a condition that causes patches of skin to lose pigmentation.
The young girl, called “the devil child” because of her patchy skin, was told repeatedly that she was too ugly to be picked.
“We were all ranked from the most favored to the least, and I was at the very bottom for being rebellious and having a skin condition called vitiligo, which produces white freckles on my neck and chest,” Michaela said, adding she slept on a grass sleeping mat with “Number 26.”
Aside from the vomit-stained nightgown she was wearing, all she had was a magazine, which according to Glamour had (literally) blown onto her face. And on the cover was a ballerina en pointe – a dancer supporting all her body weight on the tips of her toes.
“The dancer looked beautiful and happy, that’s what caught my eye,” Michaela tells Glamour. “I wanted to be happy.”
And the crumpled old photo of the ballerina was the first thing she handed Elaine DePrince, who took her to her new home in New Jersey.
“There was so much love right away,” said Michaela, who over the next two decades would be the prima ballerina on the cover of magazines. “I had never been surrounded by something like that.”
‘My life is proof’
Michaela’s passion for dancing was ignited at a young age, and she pursued her dreams with remarkable dedication.
In 2011, Michaela became one of the stars of First Position, a documentary that followed six gifted dancers leading up to the competition for a place in the prestigious American Ballet Theatre’s Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School of Ballet (JKO)
She not only earned a spot but was also awarded a scholarship to study at JKO.
The same year the award-winning documentary was released, Michaela also appeared on Dancing with the Stars.
“My life is proof that no matter what situation you’re in, as long as you have a supportive family, you can achieve anything,” Michaela said.
In 2012, the talented ballerina joined the renowned Dance Theatre of Harlem, where she continued to shine as a rising star. Her exceptional talent and grace later led her to the Dutch National Ballet, where the War Child Ambassador further established herself as a formidable presence in the ballet world.
While she was living in Amsterdam and training for The Nutcracker, she received a call, inviting her to travel to New Orleans and dance in Beyonce’s hour-long video, Lemonade, which was released in 2016.
Speaking with the Wall Street Journal of meeting the pop sensation, Michaela said, “She walked up to me and said, ‘It’s such an honor to have you here.’ I was really cheesy and said, ‘The honor is mine.’ I was on cloud nine.”
‘Beacon of hope’
On September 10, her family released a heartbreaking message about the principal soloist with the Boston Ballet.
“Rest in Power,” the post starts about the dancer who died on September 10. “With pain in our hearts, we share the loss of star ballerina Michaela Mabinty DePrince, whose artistry touched countless hearts and whose spirit inspired many, leaving an indelible mark on the world of ballet, and beyond.”
The Facebook post describes Michaela as an inspiration who “stood as a beacon of hope for many, showing that no matter the obstacles, beauty and greatness can rise from the darkest of places.”
The cause of her death has not yet been released.
Mom ‘spared the pain’
Only 24 hours after Michaela’s sudden death, her doting adoptive mom Elaine DePrince died on September 11 “during a routine procedure in preparation for a surgery.”
A family statement on Facebook explains that at the time of Elaine’s death, she was unaware that her daughter had died.
“As unbelievable as it may seem, the two deaths were completely unrelated. The only way we can make sense of the senseless is that Elaine, who had already lost three children many years ago, was by the grace of God spared the pain of experiencing the loss of a fourth child.” The message continues, “What the family is going through right now is truly unimaginably painful. Grieving two family members who died within a 24-hour period is tragic and devastating. We continue to ask for privacy…”
Rest in peace Michaela and Elaine. Please share your thoughts with us and then share this story so we can all send a lot of love to the family and friends of this mother-daughter duo.
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