The love story that was Stevie J and Faith Renee Evans Jordan may have now reached its final chapter. According to recent reports, Stevie J has decided that he’s had enough and filed a petition for a divorce in Los Angeles’s Superior Court. Throughout their marriage, the couple has been plagued with the belief from many in the public that they would not last. Now, a past interview from an OWN special Behind Every Man has resurfaced with Stevie recalling how long he’s been crushing on his soon-to-be ex-wife.
Back in 2018 when it was announced that Stevie J and Faith Evans made the decision to become husband and wife, the couple was riddled with criticism. Namely due to the fact that they both share a personal relationship with rapper The Notorious B.I.G., who was Faith Evans’s first husband. Stevie J also served as one of the producers of the rapper’s music and shared a close relationship with him as well. Faith Evans and Biggie Smalls, real name Christopher Wallace, produced one child from their marriage, CJ Wallace, whom Stevie J is the godfather to as well!
The couple was laced with initial criticism that would continue to follow them in their marriage journey. Stevie J and Faith addressed the chatter while speaking to Raquel Harper on her BET show Raq Rants. According to the reality star and musician, he insists that Biggie Smalls would be “happy that she’s happy” as it’s been “twenty-something years later.” The “All Night Long” singer chimed in with her belief that her ex-husband would surely be doing his thing if he was still with us.
She further went on to add that had it been other persons within Big’s circle such as Lil Cease or Nino Brown, then the backlash would have been more understandable as they were closer to the rapper. “I would look at myself like, ‘What are you doing?” Faith Evans said at the time. The R&B singer also reminds everyone that she was married again following her divorce from Biggie Smalls to Todd Russaw, whom Stevie J referred to as a “bum.”
In another instance, Stevie J took the time to defend their decision to get married against a fan who commented under a photo of the then-couple on his Instagram. As reported by All About Laughs, a fan stated questioned his loyalty to The Notorious B.I.G. knowing both his history with the rapper and Evans’s, while bringing up “street code” that “loyalty is above everything.” To their question, Stevie responded with the same rhetoric of the timespan between their marriage and told the social media user to “take their issues up with GOD.”
During their segment on OWN’s Behind Every Man, Stevie recalled how he became connected to the Bad Boy camp, where he would go on to meet both the rapper and his future wife. The year was 1995, which he says was when his life changed, and while playing guitar in a session with producer Chad Elliot for R&B group Total. When Bad Boy CEO Sean “Puff Daddy” Combs noticed Stevie J, he mentioned that he had a “contract for him in the car.”
He would soon find himself working under Combs as a producer, crafting songs for artists like 112, Total, and B.I.G. Working with the rapper, he says, was “phenomenal.” But according to Stevie J, it was in February of 1996 that he was enlisted by Combs to work with Faith Evans in the studio for a remix. “Word? I’m ready!” he exclaimed.
While in the studio with Evans, he recalled her voice not being in the best shape at the time as she was hoarse. “And, it was most beautiful hoarse voice you could’ve ever heard in your life,” Stevie stated. “Because when she’s hoarse, she sings with more passion – even more passion. So, I was floored.” It was that very moment after hearing her sing that he admits began to “crush on Faith.”
However, although separated from The Notorious B.I.G., she was still legally married to him at the time. “So, I had to wait,” expressed Stevie. But he went on to confess that he “always watched her from afar.”
Watch the clip of Stevie J speaking on the moment he initially fell for Faith Evans below.
