Photo: Getty Images
Congratulations to the happy couple!
By Bernadette Giacomazzo — Written on Dec 29, 2019
Who is Keonna Nicole? Congratulations are in order for the gorgeous young mother, who has just announced that she's gotten engaged to Nick Young. And while she is far less of a public figure than Young's previous boo, she's still a very important person in his life.
And, he proved it when he got down on one knee recently and asked her to be his wife! Their courtship seemed a bit like a whirlwind, but in hindsight, it all makes sense, especially since Iggy Azalea seems to have moved on with her life just fine.
So let's look at what we know about Keonna Nicole, the woman that Nick Young will soon make his wife.
1. Who is Keonna Nicole? She's Nick Young's fiancé and long-time girlfriend.
Keonna Nicole is someone who has actually been a constant in Nick Young's life. She was his high school sweetheart, and the couple welcomed their first child, Nick Jr., in 2012. Young, however, met rapper Iggy Azalea in 2013, and started dating her in 2014. By the next year, Young proposed to Azalea — and that's when Nicole announced that she was pregnant with Young's second child, a daughter named Navi.
That immediately caused Azalea to break up with Young and call off their engagement, but there were some people who thought that Young's relationship with Azalea was little more than a publicity stunt to raise their respective profiles.
2. But Azalea tried to make Young seem like a cheater.
When Young first broke up with Azalea and went back to Nicole (whose real name is Keonna Nicole Greene), Azalea claimed that he was a "cheater" because he allegedly got Nicole pregnant while he was supposed to be with her.
"Nick did Iggy so dirty and it’s like there are no consequences for him, it still makes Iggy’s blood boil. She feels sorry for Keonna too because she knows Nick is a serial cheater, a leopard doesn’t change his spots. Iggy’s still got a lot of anger towards Nick for treating her so badly, so more than anything she’s just glad Nick’s not her problem anymore," claimed a source close to Azalea.
However, if you believe that the relationship between Azalea and Young was a publicity stunt, then you can't believe that Young is a "serial cheater," because there have been no reports on him cheating on Nicole since he "broke up" with Azalea.
3. Nicole and Nick Young went "public" with their relationship back in 2018.
Nicole and Young first went public with their relationship back in 2018, when they appeared on the red carpet together for the NBA Awards. And while Nicole was billed as a "homewrecker" at the time, it's clear that the duo were very much in love from the "jump," as they say.
4. She joined the cast of Basketball Wives to clear the air about her role in Young's life.
"I think I have this bad image when it comes to, when people hear my name. So I feel like now that people have had a chance to see me on television, people’s opinions of me have changed a little bit," she said in an interview, adding that she and Young had been in each other's lives since the 11th grade, and even though they dated other people, they always found their way back to each other.
5. Nicole wanted to marry Young for the longest time.
Nicole admitted that even though they went back and forth in each other's lives for a long time, she wanted to marry Young when she went back to him the second time. And though, at the time, she claimed that they weren't intimate anymore, it's clear that they were when she turned up pregnant with their second child.
6. Despite their past drama, Nicole said she bears no ill will to Azalea.
"I wish [Azalea] a lifetime of success. I’m definitely not going to apologize for being in love with a man who I have a lot of history with. I do wish her that kind of success and hope that she can get through this difficult time and she and Nick can move forward from this," she said.
Considering that Nicole and Young are now officially engaged, it makes sense that she'd wish nothing but the best to her former love rival. Congratulations to the happy couple!
Bernadette Giacomazzo is an editor, writer, publicist, and photographer whose work has appeared in Teen Vogue, People, Us Weekly, The Source, XXL, HipHopDX, The Los Angeles Times, The New York Post, BET.com, and more.