Neyo and Crystal Renay Smith are heading for divorce a second time. This time around, it does not seem like the pair will reconcile. While their first divorce attempt in 2020 came under more amicable circumstances, the duo did eventually fall back in love thanks to being stuck in the house together during the COVID-19 lockdown. This time around, Crystal is fully armed with newfound knowledge of years of cheating by her husband, and after exposing him on social media, she is charging full speed ahead with the separation.
“For the sake of our children, my family and I will work through our challenges behind closed doors. Personal matters are not meant to be addressed and dissected in public forums. I simply ask that you please respect me and my family’s privacy at this time.”
— NE-YO (@NeYoCompound) July 31, 2022
According to court documents obtained by RadarOnline.com, “Crystal filed a petition for divorce on August 1. She listed the date of marriage as February 20, 2016. The parties separated on or about July 22, 2022, and since that date have continuously lived in a bona fide state of separation.” Neyo and Crystal met an audition for his music video “Non-Fiction” and share three children, Shaffer Smith Jr., Roman Smith, and Isabella Smith. In the court documents, it’s revealed Neyo fathered another child out side of his marriage. Crystal is seeking both spousal and child support and claims the marriage is “irretrievably broken with no hope for reconciliation.”
Neyo is not only an accomplished superstar, but he is also one of the most successful songwriters in modern music. Between hits penned for himself and others, he’s amassed a $16 million dollar fortune, according to networthbro.com. Neyo has also successfully branched off into the worlds of acting and television hosting. He stars in the Step Up series on Youtube and is a host on World of Dance alongside Jennifer Lopez.
Neyo reportedly owns an impressive home in Los Angeles. He purchased a $1.9 million house in Sherman Oaks, California. The house features five bedrooms and six bathrooms. Ne-Yo also owns a six-bedroom, five-bathroom house in Georgia, as well as several other properties in the state. He also has a luxury car collection valued in the millions.
It was stated in their initial divorce filing from 2020 that Neyo and Crystal had a prenup in place. Though the terms of it are not public, Neyo did express his desire to divide their assets according to the prenuptial agreement. It is unclear if his infidelity will void the prenup in anyway going into this second divorce.
Neyo took to Twitter the day of Crystal’s announcement to ask for privacy. The “Year of the Gentleman” hitmaker said this is a personal family matter that needs to be treated as such and hoped to figure things out in private. He then reposted a link to his latest release, “Don’t Love Me,” which rubbed many fans the wrong way. “Publicly cheating but wants privacy when it comes to light. You want protection for your family, but where was the security of having your wife’s heart?” said one fan.
Neyo supposedly did some real work to save his marriage; much of it was documented in the music of his last album, Self-Explanatory. Neyo said that many of the tough discussions he and Crystal had to have during the pandemic turned into the songs on the album. He says his single “Don’t Love Me” was an ode to her. On the song, he sings about failing his partner and wishing she would go find happiness somewhere else. “Please, oh, please, don’t love me. Walk away; you’ll be better for it,” he croons. Elsewhere he said, “Running after all these thots, Steady telling you I’m not. Lying to your face done got too easy for me.”
In the songs Malcolm & Marie inspired visual, P-Valley star Tyler Leplay tells Empire star Serayah, “I think we might need to press the brakes on this for a second. I mean, this ain’t right. You’re not happy. I can see that in your face. There’s no point in us being unhappy together.” Art certainly seems to be imitating life. With more context now, it appears to many that Neyo’s attempt to leave in 2020 was his way of getting out before Crystal found out what was going on. Despite initiating that split, it seems their family obligations made it easy to slip back into their usual patterns. Now that Crystal knows what has been going on, she is not turning back. In a social media post following her exposing Neyo, she posed and showed off her cherry lips in the car while blasting the song “F*** N**** Free.”
