“Man, becoming a wife and a mother, specifically a mother, really taught me so much,” Keys told Essence magazine for her June 2019 cover feature. “I remember clearly wanting to remove the negative energy around me quickly, and prior to that, I didn’t feel so drawn to do that for myself. But doing it for this new soul made sense to me.” She added, “Swizz is a very spontaneous spirit and soul. I think he gave me a lot of that intel, too.”
Keys and Beatz have two children together, Egypt and Genesis, however, the producer has three other children: a son named Kaseem with Mashonda, a son named Prince Nasir with a woman named Nicole Levy, and a daughter named Nicole with British singer Jahna Sabastian. “We are a beautiful blended family. I’m super proud of all of us. I think one of the things that we talk about a lot is just we’re so quick to find the negative in everything,” the singer said. “We’re so quick to just latch on to it and hold on to it and never let it go, and it’s a really beautiful thing to see the opposite side of that and to witness it in a genuine way and experience it. I think we just don’t get to see enough of it, and there’s plenty of it.”
“Because, you know, obviously relationships take work,” she says of her bond with Mashonda. “All relationships do. You know what I mean? And when you want it, and you want to do the work, you can. So it’s a beautiful thing, and I’m definitely, definitely proud of where we are and where we’re going, you know? Our kids are dope.”
