Photo: Instagram
Well, congratulations then!
By Bernadette Giacomazzo — Written on Oct 20, 2019
Listen, if you can afford 10 kids, have 10 kids, and good on you for having the patience to birth and raise 10 kids. This R&B singer recently announced that she was pregnant with her tenth child, but it's also her first with her new boyfriend. So who is Keke Wyatt, and what should we know about her?
Until recently, Keke Wyatt was mostly known to fans of R&B. She first shot to fame as a teenager, when she was a member of various girl groups. But in 2001, when she was just 15 years old, she broke into the mainstream with a song called "My First Love," which featured fellow R&B singer Avant, and was featured on his album My Thoughts. The song was a remake of a classic song of the same name (Rene and Angela sang the original). The overwhelming success of this collaboration with Avant led to her getting a solo contract with MCA Records, and her career was well on the way.
But let's look at what else we know about Keke Wyatt, her now-10 children, and her new husband.
1. She shared the news of her 10th baby on Instagram.
Keke Wyatt took to her Instagram to share a (rather cute) maternity shoot to announce her 10th pregnancy. "We are so excited!" she said on the popular social media photo-sharing platform.
2. This baby is Keke Wyatt's first with her husband, Zackariah Darring.
According to People, even though this new baby is her 10th child, it's her first with her new husband, Zackariah Darring. The outlet reports that Wyatt married Darring in 2017, shortly after her divorce was made final from her previous husband, Michael Ford.
3. Her divorce from Michael Ford was brutal.
In September of 2017, Keke Wyatt told TMZ that her divorce from Michael Ford was extremely heartbreaking and brutal. The outlet reports that Wyatt was pregnant with her 9th child (which was, of course, Ford's) at the time of their divorce, and what's worse, one of their children was battling cancer. And Wyatt also said that she accepted Ford's child from a previous relationship as her own, which made his behavior even more heartbreaking.
4. Keke Wyatt is a domestic violence survivor.
According to Madame Noire, Keke Wyatt's first husband was physically violent. The outlet reports that Keke went into excruciating detail with Sara Stokes in a documentary, in which they shared about the abuse suffered at the hands of their husbands. "I’m the one that’s crazy because I stabbed him. And I did. I hear my infant baby in the other room, screaming, crying mommy. And I got this dude choking me. He’s high. He done been out on a binge. I had no idea this dude did drugs. So I find out he’s a crackhead on Christmas Eve. And then he comes home and he’s pissed off because I showed up at his cousin’s house and I embarrassed him. And so he decided he wanted to take it out on me with these here. And he had been drinking so he had that liquid courage. Which got him stabbed," she said.
5. Her pregnancy announcement got some chuckles from fans on social media.
According to Bossip, Keke Wyatt announcing her pregnancy got her more than a few side-eyes and chuckles from fans on social media. The outlet reports that it's uncommon, today, for women to have more than one child, let alone have 10 children, and people weren't exactly supportive of her decision to have a tenth child.
6. But others said that we need to mind our own business, and leave Keke Wyatt alone.
"It’s amazing how some of us are all about a woman’s right to choose until she chooses to birth or adopt more children than we’re comfortable with — as if she’s asking us to help her raise them or something. If a woman is self-sufficient and providing a healthy and happy environment for her children, what gives anyone the right to comment on how many children she’s chosen to create? Some people prefer larger families. We should allow them to pursue what makes them happy without shaming them or casting judgment. Telling a woman to stop having kids is just as hurtful as asking a woman why she doesn’t have children. We should practice keeping our noses out of everyone’s uterus — not just a select few," said a different report for Madame Noire, and frankly, this is a sentiment we can all get behind.
Congratulations, then, to Keke Wyatt!
Bernadette Giacomazzo is an editor, writer, and photographer whose work has appeared in People, Teen Vogue, Us Weekly, The Source, XXL, HipHopDX, The Los Angeles Times, The New York Post, and more. She is also the author of The Uprising series. For more information about Bernadette Giacomazzo, click here.