Mashonda Tifrere and Alicia Keys refer to each other as “life partners.” But the two women were not always so tight. Back in 2009, Tifrere tweeted that Keys, 37, “contributed to the ending” of her marriage to Swizz Beatz.
In her new book, Tifrere details how she made peace with her ex-husband and the 15-time Grammy winner and learned to coparent peacefully. (Tifrere and the rapper, 40, share son Kasseem, Jr. 11, while he and Keys have kids Egypt, 8 and Genesis, 3.)
“Alicia is extremely involved with my son,” Tifrere told Us Weekly at The Stephen Weiss Apple Awards in New York City. “She is not like the bonus mom or stepmom that’s just about literally, ‘alright, we’re picking them up at 2. No. She really shows up for parent teacher meetings. We plan trips to the park with all the boys.”
The brood even took a trip to Egypt in August. “It was Alicia’s idea,” the Blended author told Us. “She wanted us all to be around the children.”
Thanksgiving will also be a group affair. “We do an early [celebration] at my house,” Tifrere revealed. “Then we’ll take it over there.”
Earlier this month, Tifrere, the music producer and the Voice judge spoke about their blended family on an episode of Good Morning America. Tifrere, who split from Beatz in 2008, realized they had to bury the hatchet when the tension started to impact Kasseem.
“He was, you know acting out in his own little way,” she explained. “He had some issues in school. He wanted to know why I couldn’t go see him at his dad’s house, and why can’t his dad come over and see his bedroom at our house.”
Tifrere knew something had to change. “We’ve got to do better, we’ve got to figure this out,” she mused on GMA. “Even if we don’t want to for ourselves right now, we have to do it for him, cause he doesn’t deserve this.”
Keys and Beatz tied the knot in July 2010.
