Amber Rose first made a name for herself as a model on the arm of hip hop royalty.
But she's since put in the work to create a brand and a legacy all her own. Here's how
she went from her humble beginnings to become an iconic Hollywood star.
These days, it might be easy to
assume Amber Rose has always been living the good life. But the reality is that she has had to face
many demons throughout her past. Rose was raised primarily by her mother. She recalled to Cosmo,
"[My mom] taught me compassion, and she taught me how to be a good person."
Although her dad was an active member of the military — and spent most of
his time away from the family — Rose thinks fondly of him now.
"I would call my dad and I would be like, 'Dad can you please buy
me some sneakers?’ And he would say, ‘Does the sole have a hole in it?’”
The model told The Sun that her modest childhood was challenging for many reasons, all beginning
in a Philadelphia neighborhood she described as "tough." As she explained to A Z Central,
"I fought girls in my neighborhood all the time.
But it was just the thing to do. If you have a problem with someone you fight it out."
"Almost everyone I grew up with is either on drugs or dead."
But unlike most of the kids she knew back then, Rose soon found her way outta there.
"I just wanted to go like, swim with whales and like study them."
Rose had dreams of becoming a marine biologist when she was a kid, but that didn't exactly pan
out when real life kicked in. According to Cosmo, she first began working in adult entertainment at
the age of 15. But the job was beyond anything she was prepared to do. She confessed to the outlet,
"I was a kid. I think I was still a virgin at the time."
After taking a step back, Rose eventually returned to the industry from the age of 18
to 25. But this time around, she was ready for it. She explained,
"That was the best time of my life! Oh my god,
I had so much fun. I really did. All the girls were really cool. I made lifelong friends." Rose quickly leveraged
her industry experience into something a little more mainstream. She began honing
her acting chops in 2008, and later went on to guest star on "'Black-ish" in 2015.
But despite the high-profile gig, some fans were disappointed with the character she played.
"I think the word you're lookin' for is damn."
"Damn."
"This seems right to you?"
As Refinery29 noted,
"[It's] the kind of cliché, stock female character we should be working to eliminate
from TV and movies, and Amber Rose has the platform to help make it happen."
Rose also appeared on several episodes of "Inside Amy Schumer" from 2015 to 2016,
which seems to have led to a real life friendship with Schumer herself.
"You're not Amber Rose?"
"What? Me? No."
In 2008, Rose made her music video debut with Young Jeezy's track, "Put On." The experience
was also memorable because it's where she would meet her future boyfriend, Kanye West.
From there, Rose was featured in a number of other high-profile videos, including the Ludacris track
"What Them Girls Like" and "Massive Attack" by Nicki Minaj. Rose later explained that she feels
she took a "classy" approach to the music video modeling gig. As she told The Jasmine Brand,
"I did interviews, I did a video, that's why to this day,
they respect me so much. I did my job, I got my check and went home."
After meeting in 2008 on the set of "Put On," Rose and Kanye West dated for two years. And in reference
to haters who credit West for launching her career, Rose told the New York Post,
"I don't owe him [anything]."
But ever since their split, both Rose and West have seemingly gone out of their way
to shade the other. Rose opened up about the challenges she faced while they were
together, claiming that West is incapable of commitment. She alleged to the Post in 2012,
"He can't be faithful, and it's not just with one person. He's just unfaithful with a lot
of different women. I got to the point where I thought, my heart can't take it anymore."
"In all of my relationships, I’ve been hurt. I have been the one that has been heartbroken."
Rose then blamed Kim Kardashian for contributing to her breakup with West.
After claiming that Kardashian reportedly sent West photos of
herself while he was still with Rose, the model told Star magazine in 2012,
"[Kim Kardashian is] one of the main reasons why me
and Kanye are not together. She's a homewrecker."
A year after things
with West hit the skids, Rose famously began dating rapper Wiz Khalifa in 2011.
She later told Us Weekly that the two met in a pretty modern way: on social media. She said,
"Initially we met through Twitter. He did an interview about me and the guy who interviewed
him asked, 'If there was one girl in the world, who would you be with?' He said 'Amber Rose.'"
Following the admission, Rose made the first move by starting a conversation with Wiz on the
platform. They soon met, fell in love, and got married in July 2013. At the time, they had a
lot to celebrate — the couple had just welcomed their son, Sebastian, in February of that year.
But things between the pair quickly took a turn,
and they announced they were divorcing less than two years later. Khalifa later revealed
that ending the marriage was tough but that he got something out of it, telling Playboy,
"It helps to walk away sometimes, even though it was super hard."
For her part, Rose chalks up their divorce to getting married too fast.
As she told the "B Real With Bethenny" podcast,
"I feel like if we just stayed in just a boyfriend-girlfriend relationship longer,
we could have worked it out and then got married later."
"Right now we're just working on co-parenting and learning how to be friends."
These days, Rose is a devoted mom of two. In 2019, she welcomed her son Slash with her former boyfriend,
Alexander "A.E." Edwards. She later confessed that — like many
parents — worrying about her kids can keep her up at night. She told People,
"You think about all the worst things that
could possibly happen to your baby, and it really sucks."
But Rose is quick to admit that when it comes to parenting,
she definitely doesn't have all the answers. Still, instead of feeling overwhelmed or worrying
that she's not doing enough, she focuses on trusting her gut. She told the outlet,
"Your maternal instinct comes in, and you figure it out along the way.
And that's the fun part about it." In 2015, Rose published her first book,
"How to Be a Bad Bitch," which was part memoir, part self-help — and full of revelations.
“It's like whatever a man can do, we can do it also."
The model-turned-author revealed what it was like to pitch her work to her publisher,
admitting she was worried that they might not get her vibe. Relieved to
walk into a room full of women, Rose told GQ that she asked everyone one question:
"Have you ever been cheated on with a woman who was less attractive?"
Reportedly, the room immediately became a frenzy of conversation. Clearly the pitch was a success.
All that hard work has paid off for Rose, banking her an estimated $12 million for her varied industry efforts.
Rose is also a property owner. She bought a home in Los Angeles for just under $4 million in 2016,
the same year she sold her previous property for $5.1
million. The Daily Mail revealed that she also apparently has a thing for fancy cars,
like the $371,000 Rolls-Royce she bought in 2016. This star may enjoy the finer things in life,
but she's ok if guys can't handle her success. She told GQ in 2015,
"I have my own house. I have a Ferrari. I have a Jeep. I have an Escalade. I have a beautiful son,
two assistants, lawyers, business managers,
management, and access to pretty much whatever I want. It does become intimidating for a man.
I do feel more comfortable with someone who’s living up to par with me."
Rose takes her role
as a mother to two boys very seriously. She told People that with her first son Sebastian,
she learned that he needs to be able to see his mom as "Superwoman." And she also believes it's
important for him to learn feminist values. As a woman has endured an enormous amount of shaming,
Rose says she hopes her sons stand up for the girls and women in their lives.
The star also explained that she exposes her kids
to the female body through art, telling Teen Vogue,
"I feel like as parents, when we talk to our children [and]
make things very taboo […] and weird, or we're like, 'No, no,
no, don't look'...it makes them be like, 'Why? What's the big deal?'"
Rose hopes to raise boys who respect themselves and the girls and women around them.
In January 2020, Kobe Bryant,
his daughter Gianna, and seven other people died in a helicopter crash that impacted fans all
around the world. And Rose wanted to honor their legacy in her own special way. A month later, she
debuted two brand-new tattoos on her forehead: the nicknames of her sons, Bash and Slash. Rose said
that Kobe and Gianna's passing inspired her to get the ink, telling "One on One with Keyshia Cole,"
"I don't want this to sound corny or anything but kinda after Kobe died,
it made me reflect on my life. I don't want people to be like,
'Oh Kobe died and you went and got a tattoo,' but it was kinda like that."
Her own father's battle with cancer was another reason she felt inspired
to go through with the design. The model and mom of two said simply,
"This is how I felt and I'm happy I did it."
"Life is so short. Just do it. Just live your best life…like, its just like…
with no regrets. Just do it."
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