Actress Nia Long is finally opening up about the recent cheating scandal that rocked her family. The a-lister has kept herself busy in recent months as the world has speculated the status of her relationship with long-time fiance Ime Udoka. She recently sat down with the Hollywood Reporter to talk at length about her life and the projects she’s been working on. Keeping consistent with her initial statement about wanting to prioritize her kids, Long says that the whole ordeal has been particularly hard on her son and is putting the Celtics on blast for not keeping this matter private.
Nia Long calls out the Boston Celtics
— NBACentral (@TheNBACentral) December 1, 2022
“If you’re in the business of protecting women — I’m sorry, no one from the Celtics organization has even called to see if I’m OK, to see if my children are OK. It’s very disappointing.”
(Via The Hollywood Reporter) pic.twitter.com/9tEledSsw9
Ime Udoka is a former NBA star turned coach. After playing for almost a decade, he began assisting in leading teams and eventually scored the role of head coach of the Boston Celtics. Unfortunately, Ime began a consensual relationship with a female staffer that went public in September. The team opted to suspend him for the year, and the whole thing became a media frenzy, thanks to him being engaged to the beloved actress Nia Long for over a decade.
People immediately began watching Long to see if she would respond to the drama. The actress kept a low profile, releasing a sole statement saying she needed time to process everything and would be focusing on her children. When TMZ caught up with her, she was with her youngest son Kez Sunday Udoka and back in Los Angeles trying to get to her car. Long seemed to brush off any questions about her reconciling but also was noticeably not wearing her ring. She reportedly had moved back to Los Angeles after relocating to Boston with Ime.
The Nets do not hire Ime Udoka, taking the interim tag off of Jacque Vaughn: pic.twitter.com/3epo5UYYwr
— David Aldridge (@davidaldridgedc) November 9, 2022
Ime seemed like he was gearing up for a redemption arc after it was speculated that he could be stepping into the head coach role over at the Brooklyn Nets. Unfortunately, that deal fell through, possibly due to the Kyrie Irving scandal scaring the team off from anything that would bring the additional press to them. The NBA reportedly pressured the team not to go forward with Ime, and instead, they picked Jacque Vaughn.
Nia has kept busy working on new projects and is promoting her upcoming role in The Best Man television series. While discussing bringing the franchise to a close, Long expressed how much 2022 has been about ending chapters for her, alluding to a possible split from Ime. The pair have never confirmed if they would be staying together, and close sources speculated that she was either already aware of what was happening or had no plans on leaving.
Long told the Hollywood Reporter that her only real intention was protecting her son, who she had to take out of school following the Celtics going public with everything. “I went home to be with my son, and that was what was most important to me because he was not having an easy time,” she told the magazine. She also called out the Celtics for making their family problems public and only exposing Ime but not the woman involved. She feels they protected the woman but never checked in on her or her son to see if they were ok. “It’s very disappointing,” she added.
Nia Long said see ya! pic.twitter.com/rve08s6XBL
— Tamantha 👸🏾 (@Tamantha_5) November 26, 2022
Nia Long recently purchased a new home leaving many to speculate she has left Ime. Neither party has confirmed or denied this information.
