By Franny Crooks
Is it just me or is “black love” getting backlash nowadays, especially when it comes to celebrity relationships? The first night that “T.I. and Tiny: The Family Hustle,” a VH1 reality show chronicling the lives of rapper T.I. and his wife and former singer Tiny Harris, aired, I was shocked by many of the comments regarding their relationship. “She’s only with him for the money,” “He’s only with her for the kids,” and the straw that broke the camel’s back was: “There’s no way they can still be in love after all the years together.” Can “black love” exist without reason? Here you have two people who are obviously in love with each other, so why does there have to be another reason for their relationship to still be intact?
Let’s check the history for a moment. T.I. and Tiny have been together for more than 10 years and married for one year. Within those years, they have had two sons, King, 8, and Major, 4. Now, T.I. does have three other children, who aren’t Tiny’s children. Judging from the ages of these other children, it’s easy to deduce that T.I. has stepped outside of his relationship with Tiny at least a few times. No relationship is without flaws, but you have to ask yourself what would make a woman stick around in that kind of situation if there were no love at all?