Reality TV personality Crystal Renay has been divorced from singer, Ne-Yo, for a year now but she’s finally sharing how she discovered the crooner was cheating. While chit-chatting with the hosts at The Breakfast Club, ironically, she said it was his visit to The Breakfast Club that burst open the can of worms.
During an appearance on the show, the “One in A Million,” singer was asked whether he’d want to know if his partner was cheating. According to Renay, his response was that he’d rather “live in a blissful bubble of ignorance.”
“Somebody sent me that, and something in my stomach was like uh-uh. Something ain’t right," she recalls. "Is that how he wants me to think?”
“I found everything that I found that day, and I left,” she said. In terms of what she found, it was hard evidence in the singer's phone after going through it.
“With me, he has a little jealousy in him or whatever. I know that he would never be okay with me doing that,” she continued to explain. The mom also added that she feels God had a hand in things unfolding the way they did.
“He knew that that wasn’t what I wanted in a marriage, and He just removed me from that situation. He did it in a way that I had no choice to leave because my values and my morals would never be involved in something like that,” she said.
Prior to that experience, Renay and Ne-Yo called it quits and rekindled their relationship multiple times up until 2022. But by this time, Renay had truly had enough, filed for divorce, and followed through. Around the time, Renay found out Ne-Yo had impregnated another woman, who he has since had two children with.
Despite all the things that went down in their marriage, Renay still has positive things to say about the father of her kids. “That was my dawg,” she said of Ne-Yo.
However, she doubled down on the reality, which was that she deserved better.
“I know my worth and I’m not gonna settle for just sharing somebody, when I know I deserve a whole man,” she said.
Renay also did an interview with PEOPLE about turning over a new leaf in March 2024. She spoke about being "happy for herself" during this new season.
“I am feeling blessed and grateful to God for his redirection,” she told the publication. Ne-Yo congratulated Renay on the feature, which caused a viral moment as some people saw it as shade. Nonetheless, they seem to be doing well with co-parenting and moving on with their lives.
The former couple got married in 2016 and share three children together. Shaffer Chimere Smith, Jr., was born in 2016, Roman Alexander-Raj Smith was born in 2018 and the baby of their clan, Isabella Rose, was born in 2021.