R&B singer Keyshia Cole is keeping it real on her divorce from former NBA player Daniel “Boobie” Gibson.
Gibson was the 41-year-old’s first husband. The two were married in 2011 and have a son named DJ, who is now 13. Cole’s new biopic, “Keyshia Cole: This Is My Story,” on Lifetime, showcases her numerous hardships, including her separation from Gibson. She now explains why she didn’t get a divorce from him until 2017.
“That was a lot of the reason why I didn’t get a divorce through all the cheating,” Cole said to PEOPLE. “Because it was like, I just want to do it for my kid, you know what I’m saying? Like, ‘Can he have two parents in the same home?'”
Generational Trauma
Cole comes from a one-parent home with her mother the late reality star Frankie Lons, who died of an overdose at 61 years old in their native Oakland, California, in 2021. Elite Noel, Cole’s sister, confirmed her mother died on her birthday from an accidental overdose after years of suffering from drug addiction.
“Worse pain ever to see my mama in a body bag on her birthday!” she wrote on social media, per reports. “My heart so f***ing broke.”
Lons was Cole’s biological mother, but she was adopted by family friends Leon and Yvonne Cole at 2 years old.
Back in 2020, after 34 years, Cole found her biological father, who happened to be none other than champion-making trainer Virgil Hunter. His most outstanding pupil is Bay Area undefeated boxing legend Andre Ward.
Cole reportedly searched for her father intermittently throughout most of her adult life. It is no wonder she would try to keep her family together amid Gibson’s transgressions.
Cole is now a mother of two, with a younger son named Tobias, whom she had with ex-boyfriend and music artist Niko Khale in 2019. Cole told People that she is now “just making lemonade” out of her situation because “regardless if my kids don’t have both parents, I’m trying to create that safe co-parenting space. That’s really what it’s all about.”
The Co-Parent Struggle
The award-winning singer kept it real that co-parenting “has its ups and downs,” she continued to People, but “the kids are first in line. Sometimes we don’t agree on things, and when my kids hurt, I hurt. So they just know Mama Bear is going to come, so don’t play. We work it out, though.”
Who is Cole dating now, and is marriage in her future yet again? She is hopeful but very unsure.
“I don’t even know,” she says with a laugh. “It’s rough out here. You can’t get these people to tell you the truth about anything, and I’m a truth seeker.
“A couple of people have told me my husband is in Dubai and I need to go overseas,” she continued. “I said, ‘Well bring him on!’ I just gotta get over there.”
Being married to an NBA player can be a roller coaster ride of existence, and Keyshia Cole has been on enough emotional roller coasters.