What happens when a rapper and a model hook up and become reality stars?
From the controversial to the truly bizarre, this couple is telling all about what it's
like behind closed doors at their house.
Here are the strange things about Coco Austin and Ice-T's marriage.
When they met, Coco Austin was just 22, and Ice-T was 42.
And let's just say, this couple's meet-cute was one for the ages.
Coco blogged,
"I was working as a model in California, on a movie set that Ice was doing a video for.
Ice was having a grumpy day so his friend/producer for the video wanted to cheer Ice up and grabbed
me…Then [Ice] goes on to say 'Have you ever thought about dating a Gangster rapper?'…I
responded to him 'Well, If he's nice...' and Ice responds with, 'Well baby if you take
the N off nice you get 'ICE.'
That line made me laugh."
You might assume you know what Ice-T noticed first about Austin, but you might also be
wrong.
"It wasn't the boobs."
"No, they were…very soon afterwards."
Ice told the Daily Mail,
"It was her teeth, they were the first things I saw…and then I saw her boobs.
And then, when she turned around, that big butt."
But it turned out, their connection went deeper than that, we swear!
Ice-T admitted,
"There was an instant physical attraction, but I was at a point in my life where I was
ready to slow down.
I wanted a partner."
This is a couple that likes to shock people, and we're not just talking about Austin's
outrageous fashion sense.
They've also shared some controversial details about how they keep the spark alive.
On Watch What Happens Live, Austin raised eyebrows when she talked about submitting
to her husband, saying,
"I am, I'm a slave to him."
"Really?"
"By her choice, she likes that.
She's into that."
The couple renewed their vows in 2011, and true to form, they went big for the ceremony,
which was all documented for their reality show, Ice Loves Coco.
Guests included rappers Snoop Dogg and Flavor Flav, and reality star Tila Tequila, and it
all went down at Hollywood's swanky W Hotel.
The couple's Halloween costumes are another example of how they go all-out.
Austin told In Touch,
"Halloween is our favorite holiday…This is the one holiday we don't really like coordinating
because we do it year-round."
Austin has dressed up as everything from a naughty schoolgirl to Madonna, while Ice-T
favors slashers and psycho killers.
As of mid-2020, the best place to follow Ice-T and Coco's antics is on social media.
But for a couple of years, fans got an inside view via their reality show, Ice Loves Coco.
"Gimme some lovin…"
The show featured everything about the couple, from Austin's fashion line to Ice-T's work
on Law & Order.
The stars wrapped the show in 2013, after 2 years of filming.
Ice-T explained that, in spite of great ratings, he and Coco pulled the plug before they were
forced to create drama for the sake of views.
He told HuffPost,
"[Producers] create chaos because they're trying to entertain people…It's hard to
do for a long period of time.
So we got in and got out."
It turned out, Ice-T and Austin weren't done with the small screen.
After their reality series wrapped, they attempted a daytime talk show, called Ice & Coco.
But before they started filming, they did some serious training.
Ice-T told People magazine,
"We went to a talk show boot camp out in L.A. where they gave us some pointers and stuff…We
just went there and did our thing, and they were like, 'You did incredible, it was amazing.'"
"On the next…on the next…on the next Ice and Coco."
Their show aired for a three-week test-run in 2015, but even the wackiness of the premiere
wasn't enough to get it off the ground.
During the bizarre episode, the couple revealed that Austin was pregnant with their daughter,
Chanel, they brought out Snooki to dole out parenting advice, and they put on a puppy
fashion show.
Strange?
Of course.
Classic Ice-T and Coco?
100 percent.
By this point, you probably don't expect Ice-T and Coco's parenting choices to be conventional.
The couple certainly stirred the pot when Ice-T posted a snap of Austin sleeping topless
with their daughter Chanel.
The fires ignited again when a video hit the internet of Coco and a then-two-year-old Chanel
swimming with nurse sharks in the Bahamas.
Online moms across the web cringed in fear, but Coco laughed it off, noting that the sharks
quote "acted like dogs."
But perhaps the biggest controversy the couple faced had to do with breastfeeding.
"It's more of a blankie type thing.
Instead of her having a blanket, she has the boob."
While conventional wisdom advises moms to breastfeed until a baby is between one and
two years old, Coco posted shots of her breastfeeding her 4-year-old daughter.
Coco defended the choice, revealing in another post that she had difficulty breastfeeding,
initially, and appreciated its bonding benefits.
Ice-T then spoke out in his wife's defense, with TMZ reporting he said:
"The feedings are just once in a while when his girl 'wants to get close to her mom.'
Otherwise, she eats just like a normal little kid…including cheeseburgers."
"Hey guys, Coco got some braids.
What do you think?"
When Coco debuted a braided hairstyle on Instagram that she named "Da Coco Swoop," the internet
lit up, suggesting she was guilty of cultural appropriation.
At the time, Austin defended herself, saying,
"I name all my styles that I do to myself…Why can't we all rename hairstyles or braids?
That's so stupid.
Why is everybody claiming something they shouldn't?"
Ice-T, of course, also took on the critics, tweeting,
"Wrong for what?
Braiding her hair??
You sound Dumb."
The offense was not necessarily the braids themselves, but Coco naming them after herself,
when the style has actually been part of black culture for generations.
Ice-T and Coco have been married since 2002, a very long time by Hollywood standards.
And when it comes to keeping her man happy, Coco appears to have the situation on lock.
"So, the three secrets that he would like me to do for him are massage time, XBox time,
grape Kool-Aid in the refrigerator at all times."
It also seems that becoming parents has only strengthened their bond.
About Chanel, Coco told ET,
"I mean, [she's] like my real-life doll.
I get to dress her up and we get to match all day.
It's funny.
I didn't even think I was going to be that parent, but I turned into one."
"We call her two-teen…yeah."
"Because she's two going on…"
"Yes!"
"Some type of teen."
Ice-T also admitted his daughter is a total daddy's girl, and that he's here for it, adding,
"[Chanel] has absolute control over me.
I can't lie.
I mean, she's so cute and she's really smart…she's real fun.
It's like the best thing that happened to us."
When asked about how they've stayed together all these years, Ice-T offered a surprisingly
normal explanation, telling Celebuzz,
"We talk a lot, we got great communication and I think that you gotta stay on the same
team."
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