Swizz Beatz, Alicia Keys’ husband of nearly a decade, has no doubt that they were intended to be together. “He’s absolutely like a confidant to me, and I am to him,” Keys, 39, reveals in an exclusive extract from her new autobiographical book More Myself, which is featured in this week’s edition.
She exposes never-before-told details about her and Beatz’s romantic rollercoaster. The New York City natives first met when Keys, Alicia Augello-Cook, was 14 and Beatz, Kasseem Dean, was 16, when a mutual high school buddy introduced them. But Keys was uninterested at the time, and she remained so for years.
She recalls, “We wound ourselves in the same circles at numerous awards presentations and industry functions.” “He’d generally arrive in a flashy car, surrounded by his Bronx posse and gleaming with diamonds. I have no desire to be a part of that scene or with Swizz.” That began to alter when the two were brought together for the first time for a music collaboration years later.
“As we talked, I became more aware of how his thinking functioned. There was depth beneath the baggy jeans and arm tats. He was always up to date on what was going on in the world.” Despite this, Beatz came close to losing his chance with Keys on their first date. But he made up for it in style.