Snoop Dogg is no stranger to the spotlight. For nearly 30 years, this fun-loving, weed-smoking music mogul has been entertaining audiences around the world, selling more than 35 million albums across the globe. But less is known about the 49-year-old rapper’s personal life, including his decades-long marriage to Shante Broadus. Here, we take a deep dive into the life of Mr. and Mrs. Snoop Dogg.
Who Is Shante Broadus?
Shante Broadus was born in California in 1971. She went to Long Beach Polytechnic High School, which is where she met Calvin Cordozar Broadus Jr.—the guy that would soon become Snoop Dogg.
An entrepreneur and businesswoman, Shante managed the early part of Snoop Dogg’s career. She went on to found Boss Lady Entertainment, a successful music management company, and has also produced several films and television projects, including the 2012 documentary Reincarnated featuring her famous husband.
Shante is also very popular on Instagram, where she frequently posts uplifting messages and motivational quotes to her followers. She also likes to show off her dance moves by posting fun videos of her routines.
Snoop Dogg Dated Shante For Four Months Before They Kissed
Snoop and Shante were high school sweethearts in the 1980s, and the rapper says it wasn’t easy wooing her in the days before email and social media. In an interview with DJ Vlad, he said: “I had to go over there and meet her mother. I had to go over there and date her for, like, four months before I was able to kiss her. I had to call her on the phone. I had to write love letters. I had to do all of that kind of [expletive], you know what I’m saying, to win her over.”
Luckily, his persistence paid off and the pair got married on June 14th, 1997. But while they’re still together today, the couple has experienced a few big bumps along the road of wedded bliss.
Snoop Dogg Has Actually Been Married To Shante Broadus Twice
When Snoop and Shante got married, they already had a four-year-old son, Cordé Broadus. Four months after their wedding, Shante gave birth to the couple’s second son, Cordell Broadus. In 1999, they had their third child, daughter Cori Broadus.
But Snoop also has a 23-year-old son named Julian Corrie Broadus, who was the result of an extramarital affair he had in 1998. Clearly, things weren’t perfect in the Broadus household, and as Snoop’s star continued to rise, his relationship with Shante began to suffer. Motivated by all the trapping of fame, the rapper filed for divorce in 2004. “A lot of times you get cloudy,” he explained. “This music industry is a mother, man, and it’ll take your vision and blur it.”
Fortunately, Snoop quickly came to his senses and the split didn’t last long. “I was trying to get a divorce, but I went back home and I fell back in love with my wife and kids,” he admitted not long after the split. “I understand that I need my wife and my kids in my life—so I threw the papers away. I don’t want to get a divorce. So if you hear about a divorce, it’ll be my wife divorcing me. It won’t be me divorcing her…And I made a mistake, so I’m trying to get back right.”
So how did Snoop Dog win back his true love? “A whole lot of begging and pleading,” he said in an interview with Larry King (as reported by E! News). “It was up to me to try to put it back together, because I’m the one who said I didn’t want to be a part of it no more…It’s hard now to this day. It’s still hard because there’s a lot of, you know—there’s a lot of roller coaster to a relationship.”
Despite the ups and downs, these two have clearly learned how to keep it together—as of June 2020 they have been married for 22 years!
Snoop Dogg Confesses That His Daughter Saved Their Marriage
Snoop Dog also admits that his daughter’s health problems had a hand in bringing him back to Shante. In 2005, when daughter Cori was just six years old, she was diagnosed with lupus, a chronic condition that causes inflammation and pain in many areas of the body. “My daughter is the love of my life,” the rapper told People in 2010. “When she’d lay in bed saying, ‘My brain hurts’, it bothered me so much. I felt helpless… (But) she’s the toughest little thing I’ve ever met, even with the needles.”
Shante added: “Without [Snoop], I don’t know what I’d have done. It’s amazing how this all turned out. We were gonna get a divorce. But we wouldn’t have gotten through it [the lupus diagnosis] that way.”
Thankfully, Cori’s condition slowly began to improve, and in 2008, Snoop Dogg and Shante renewed their wedding vows in a private ceremony.
Shante and Snoop have weathered quite a few storms during their relationship, and though rumors continue to crop up about the “Gin & Juice” rapper’s fidelity, we’re glad they’ve stuck it out all these years!