Besides being regarded as a trailblazing rapper, LL Cool J has also been widely considered a sex symbol throughout his successful career. As a matter of fact, LL Cool J is an acronym for “Ladies Love Cool James.”
During an interview with Fat Joe on his Fat Joe Talk show, the host asked the 56-year-old about his sex symbol status and if that had ever taken a toll on his longtime wife Simone Johnson, BET reported.
“You mean when she’s walking in a store or walking out of the store?” the I Need Love rapper, who is known for his lip-licking habit, asked Fat Joe. “You have ever been to the Bronx Zoo?” he also asked the host before explaining with a scenario.
“They might have a tiger or something like that running around there, and you know what you’re getting into. So if you get a job at the zoo and you work with the tigers, you know what you’re working with. Now, mind you, the tiger needs to be respectful and honest, be honorable, and not be a piece of work… that being said, there were other choices,” he said.
The Deep Blue Sea star also emphasized, “It’s not that I’m insensitive or emotionally tone-deaf to being respectful to people and the emotional layers that come with relationships. My point is, it is very important for you to pursue your dreams wholeheartedly if you’re going to be with somebody.”
The rapper and actor, born James Todd Smith, and Simone married in 1995 after they had an on-again, off-again relationship for almost ten years. The high school sweethearts share four children.
During a 2012 interview with Jimmy Kimmel on his eponymous show, LL Cool J said he and his wife met in 1987, adding that he was a teenager at the time, HuffPost reported. “I was just 19, something like that,” the Mama Said Knock You Out rapper told Kimmel. “It was Easter and I was driving down the block in my mother’s car.”
He said that the meeting was made possible through a friend who asked him if he wanted to meet Simone.
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