Nia Long is on the other side of her breakup from Ime Udoka and able to reflect on what went wrong.
“You know, I had a really public breakup recently. It was a wake-up call for me in the sense of, ‘OK, you’re going to do this on your own and you’re gonna be fine,’” Long, 53, told Jeezy during a candid interview shared via his YouTube channel on Wednesday, November 8. “‘And you’re not gonna worry about what anyone else thinks and has to say.’ Because the relationship had been rocky for a very long time, [and] I don’t believe another person can break anyone up. I just don’t buy that.”
Long and Udoka, 46, confirmed in December 2022 that they called off their longtime engagement three months after his cheating scandal made headlines. The previous September, Udoka was accused of having an affair with a fellow Boston Celtics employee.
“I am sorry for putting the team in this difficult situation and I accept the team’s decision,” he said in a statement at the time, apologizing for his actions. “Out of respect for everyone involved, I will have no further comment.”
Udoka, who was the head coach of the Boston Celtics basketball team, was suspended from his post for one year. He has since taken a coaching job with the Houston Rockets. Long — who shares son Kez, 11, with Udoka and son Massai, 22, with ex Massai Z. Dorsey — was initially hesitant to call it quits because of her family.
“My older son saw me trying to keep the family together, but I had to come to a place where loving myself was bigger and more important than saving anyone,” Long said on Wednesday.
Jeezy, in turn, asked the actress how to “save your star player” if he’s “not doing good.” Long, however, was not pleased by the rapper’s word choice.
“Can we not [use the word] player?” Long quipped, seemingly referring to Udoka’s basketball career. “Can we say, like, ‘The best horse in the race?’”
All jokes aside, Long believes she is currently in the right place in her life and has accepted the end of her relationship.
“There’s an expiration date on everything, and you gotta know when to be done,” she told Jeezy, 46. “That’s usually not about another person, an affair or some chick that’s willing to make you feel like a king, because that’s why most men cheat. It’s so gross [and] it’s so stupid.”
Long further noted that she had to “realize” that what transpired had “nothing to do with me.”
“I was not embarrassed,” she said. “The way that Black people stood up for me and the way that Black women were like, ‘Oh, no, you don’t do that to her,’ I was shocked, because I didn’t realize that what I had done in my career had so much impact.”
Long and Udoka are currently battling over custody of Kez, with the actress seeking full custody. Udoka, for his part, wants to share legal and physical custody.
