Coolio is going to be missed by many, following his death at the age of 59 on Sep. 28, 2022. He left behind many fans and loved ones, including longtime girlfriend Mimi Ivey, 41. The rapper seemed to have a real connection with the reality personality, who he lived with in Las Vegas, according to CBS News. At the time of his death, he was in Los Angeles visiting friends and recording music.
The blonde beauty shared an emotional tribute to the “Gangsta’s Paradise” rapper — birth name Artis Leon Ivey Jr. — Oct. 3, 2022. “Words can not express the pain that I am feeling right now,” she wrote to her late love.
“You are my soul mate, hubby, lover & best friend I’m so happy that you called me on FaceTime at 2am and woke me up out my sleep to tell me you love me and miss me,” Mimi went on. “If I would have known that it was going to be the last conversation I have with you I wouldn’t have let you get off the phone. I miss you boo and I’m staying strong & I will see you when I get there!”
Want to know more about Mimi and her romance with Coolio? Learn everything about Mimi Ivey here.
1. They dated for a decade
The TV talent/exotic dancer began dating Coolio back in 2012, according to the Daily Mail. They first met back in 2007, but according to Ivey, they didn’t get along at first. “He was very persistent. He wouldn’t let me go,” she told the Mail.
After he wooed her with breakfast in bed, she remembers the rapper declaring them a couple. “He said, ‘You’re officially my girl. You’re mine. You belong to me. We belong together. It’s us,'” she said, looking back. “And I said, ‘Okay.'”
2. She works in entertainment
Mimi wears a lot of hats. She describes herself as a model, actress, reality TV personality, and “music video vixen” on social media. The 5’10” beauty’s website says that she’s worked in the industry for over 20 years, making appearances at “multiple clubs around the world.”
3. She took his last name
Mimi took Coolio’s name and called her “husband’ on social media, but they were not legally married. The couple almost walked down the aisle, as Mimi remembered to the Daily Mail. “We went to the courthouse, we filled out all of the paperwork and we were planning on it. But we just decided not to turn it in,” she said. “It’s just a piece of paper that doesn’t change how either one of us felt about each other.”
The couple was so close, Coolio even stepped into the role of dad for Mimi’s daughter. “My daughter asked him to be her father, they had a discussion about it, and he chose to take on the role as her father,” she said. “He embraced that role 100%.”
4. They appeared on reality TV together
Mimi and Coolio first appeared on a 2013 episode of Celebrity Wife Swap together. In it, Mimi stormed off and broke up with him after her week with Sugar Ray frontman Mark McGrath. “I just hope Coolio realizes that if he doesn’t start paying me more attention, then I don’t think he’ll be in my life very much longer,” Mimi said during the episode, per a 2013 recap on HuffPost.
Later, the rapper would say the whole plot was all pretend but Mimi admitted the stress of their show led to a four-month split for the couple. “Yes, we had our ups and downs,” she told the Daily Mail. “But I don’t care who you are, if you say you have a perfect relationship, then it’s not real.”
They returned to the small screen once again in 2020 on OWN’s Love Goals. The show featured celebrity couples working out their issues with a relationship therapist.
5. They were in an open relationship
Mimi revealed Coolio was allowed to date other women while looking back on her life with the rapper with the Daily Mail. “He was who he was. If he was seeing other women, I knew about it,” she explained. “There’s nothing that man ever did that he hid from me. We talked about everything. I knew his whole life. We had no secrets.