In March, a secretly-taped video from Lakers player D’Angelo Russell hit the Internet, showing teammate Nick Young admitting to cheating on then-fiancee Iggy Azalea.
While the “Fancy” MC appeared on The Ellen DeGeneres Show shortly after in April, assuring that all was well with Young (“We’re good. There isn’t any [controversy] at home, just on the Internet,” she offered), their engagement crumbled when Azalea announced on Instagram last week that they had split.
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“Unfortunately although I love Nick and have tried and tried to rebuild my trust in him, it’s become apparent in the last few weeks I am unable to,” she wrote. “I genuinely wish Nick the best. It’s never easy to part ways with the person you planned you’re [sic] entire future with, but futures can be rewritten and as of today mine is a blank page,” she wrote. Nick Young opted for a one-word tweet that simply read, “Single.”
On Thursday (June 30), the former pair made headlines after Azalea tweeted a response to an E! News report which alleged Young’s ex was expecting his child. (A rep for Young did not immediately respond to Billboard for comment.) She also shared on Twitter that the reason for their split was due to her finding out that he “had brought other women into our home while I was away and caught them on the security footage.”
Several weeks prior, Young (also known as “Swaggy P”) even appeared on Billboard’s Ballin’ Out podcast, discussing their forthcoming wedding plans. “It’s coming along. It’s a little tough ’cause there’s a lot of people that want to come. It’s a lot of privacy you wanna do with it and she’s been turning into it — what’s it called — a bridezilla?” he laughed. “She’s been going crazy and I’ll be just like, ahh.” He also said that he wanted to incorporate soul food into the menu, but ultimately resigned, “At the end of the day, she still has a big say in things so I just deal with that to prevent an argument.”
Azalea admitted to struggling with compromise in their relationship but also stood by it in April when Billboard interviewed her in Miami. Even with the news of the video leak still fresh on timelines (Russell even became a trending topic on Twitter), the Australian rapper wasn’t ready to call it quits at the time. Here is an excerpt of the interview two months prior to their split.
Are you the boss in your relationship with Nick?
I don’t want to say that. I try to be equal. He always says that I don’t compromise so maybe I do need to work on being less like my mother. I like try to meet in the middle as much as I can ’cause I know that’s good for a relationship. Can’t always have your own way ’cause then it’s like you don’t have a partner. You have like an assistant or sidekick. I don’t want that. I have people that I pay for that. It’s important. You can’t live a life with no compromise ’cause that’s not being a human being — that’s like creating a monster. I do try to compromise with Nick and if I don’t, he usually loses his shit and then I have to so I don’t think I’m in charge of him. I’m definitely not in control but I don’t think he’s in control of me either. It’s just a give-and-take with each thing.
Are you mad at D’Angelo Russell?
Not really. Sometimes I’m like, “Should I be more mad than I am?” D’Angelo Russell is just a rookie. It’s like rookie shit that you would expect from a f–king 21-year-old rookie to do. Even last night, people were taking pictures like I was on the red carpet and noticed everyone’s camera was pointed down on my ring. I’m like, this is two weeks old now. In real life, it was only a thing that we talked about in our house for two days. It’s still like, “Is she wearing her ring? Is she not blah blah blah whatever the hell.” In real life, this is not even a thing. It just is on the Internet.
hmmm i see D Angelo Russell is trending… I actually liked his film. Thanks bro.
— IGGY AZALEA (@IGGYAZALEA) March 30, 2016
I think the reason it’s still in people’s mind is because you tweeted.
I know but I was just having fun.
That wasn’t a warning?
No! Actually I was in bed with Nick and I saw that [Russell] was the number one trending topic. I was like, “Oh so D’Angelo is the number one mother f–king trending topic now because of this shit?” I said to Nick, “You know what I really hate about it? I really hate that you’re f–king getting out of this shit.” Everybody just wanted to talk about bad D’Angelo Russell was for leaking the video, breaking the bro code and I was like [to Nick], “Why do you get to escape responsibility for what you said?” The thing that annoyed me the most about it was I felt like, oh okay, this is what’s happening in, like, society. The bigger story here is a guy breaking the guy code. Shouldn’t the bigger story be hey, this guy got down on one knee, made a verbal commitment to be committed to this woman and said that he didn’t? Why is [he] not the bad guy? The bad guy is D’Angelo for breaking some unsaid bro code. I hated that. And I was like I’m going to f–king tweet that I saw his video and Nick was like, “You won’t do it.” I was like, “I’m f–king doing it.”
Tweeting that you saw the video?
Of course, I saw the video. I saw it the day it came out but I don’t know, I just feel like people also try to make women embarrassed like, “Oh you should be embarrassed because your guy is cheating on you.” As if it somehow reflects on me, that it’s my fault or the girl’s fault if that’s what’s happening. I just felt like not saying anything about it or acknowledging it. It kind of felt to me like I was embarrassed somehow. That’s why I just wanted to almost make light of it or just be like, hey, I saw the video see [D’Angelo’s] trending, like cool. It wasn’t that serious but as a woman, I also kind of wanted it to get back on the topic of what the f–k? Why is it about D’Angelo? It really shouldn’t be about that. That’s not even the bigger picture. D’Angelo and Nick aren’t getting married last I checked. I just hate that about the world, sometimes.
Iggy Azalea & Nick Young Break Up
So did Nick cheat on you?
I don’t know. I’ll never know. He says he didn’t but I don’t know. Do I believe him? I don’t know about that. I don’t have any girl that’s out there like, “Yes I did. Here’s a video. Here’s the hotel key. Here’s where he stays. Here’s what he’s got tattooed on his left nut sack.” I don’t have any kind of undeniable hard evidence. It’s just a video of him being a f–king idiot in his hotel room with D’Angelo Russell, talking shit to a rookie and trying to seem cool. It’s like people forget this a guy I’ve been with for three years. I don’t have the kind of relationship behind closed doors where I ever thought he was a cheater. We don’t have the kind of relationship where I can’t get him on the phone or I don’t know where he is. That’s not how Nick is or I wouldn’t be marrying him so it just kind of came left of field. But I do know Nick is a clown and he says dumb crap like that. When I saw [the video], I was like hmm, could be true, could be you just trying to look cool and trying to look like the man to a younger guy who thinks that’s cool. Trying to seem like you’re still in the game when you’re really 30 and about to get married. It could be that. That’s what [Nick] told me it was and I was like, hmmm, believable. The other scenario could be believable too although I think it’s out of his character. Everybody is human so it’s always potentially a possibility. I don’t know. I’ll never know but I have a good relationship with this person and I’m not just going to throw away my whole life I built with somebody over a f–king video. It’s not going to happen. Need a little more than that.
He wouldn’t be the first guy who lied in the locker room about who he slept with.
Yeah, I agree for sure. When you get around athletes and you see the way it kind of is with that. That’s why I was like I don’t know. We’ll never know. As long as I don’t feel like I have to be checking his phone or being a detective or anything after the video, it’s fine.