Eve Says Becoming a Stepmom 'Took Adjusting': 'I Fell in Love with Them' (Exclusive)
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09/06/2024 12:00 PM
The rapper opens up about becoming a stepmom to her husband Maximillion Cooper's four children in her new memoir and this week's issue of PEOPLE
Eve/instagram
Eve with her familyEve's life changed forever in 2010.
That year, the rapper, 45, met her husband, British businessman Maximillion Cooper, 52, at his celebrity motor rally, the Gumball 3000. Their connection was instant and intense, and despite living continents apart — Eve was living in the U.S., and Cooper was living in London with his four kids from his previous marriage — they made long-distance work.
In June 2014, the two got married, and Eve relocated to London full-time.
"It was a big move," Eve tells PEOPLE. "Culturally, things are very different. It took about two years for me to feel settled here."
She also had to adapt to her new role as a stepmom to Cooper's kids, Lotus, 22, Jagger, 20, Cash, 18, and Mini, 16.
"Dropping them off, picking them up from school, it took adjusting," she says. "But I fell in love with them as well. Max is such a good dad that it helped me be like, 'Okay, I can see me doing this. I can see me being here.'"
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Related: Eve and Maximillion Cooper's Relationship Timeline
After they got married, Eve and Cooper started trying to expand their family. But Eve, who had experienced a pregnancy loss while filming her eponymous sitcom in 2006 (she writes about it in her new memoir, Who's That Girl?, excerpted exclusively in this week's PEOPLE), struggled to get pregnant.
"You question yourself, your body, the universe, God, so many things," she says. "I told my husband [about the miscarriage] when we got close, but never ever spoke about it in public, not even [while I was hosting] The Talk."
In the book, Eve writes she had a "tubal pregnancy, where the embryonic sac ruptured in my one fallopian tube."
She was later diagnosed with endometriosis and fibroids, and after undergoing surgery to remove the fibroids, Eve underwent multiple rounds of in vitro fertilization (IVF). She ultimately had one mosaic embryo, and despite the chances that her baby could be born with potential genetic issues, she had it implanted. She found out she was pregnant while filming Queens with Brandy, Naturi Naughton and Nadine Velazquez in 2021.
"I couldn't tell anybody then because it was such a new pregnancy," she says. "I, 100 percent, was acting like an absolute crazy person. It was baking in L.A., so I was asking for ice to be put down my back. When I finally told the girls that I was pregnant months into shooting, they were like, 'That's why you were acting crazy. Thank God that you weren't a psycho diva.'"
Related: All About Eve's Son Wilde Wolf
Eve credits Cooper for getting her through that time.
"I always call him my anchor, because I live in the clouds and he's definitely two feet on the ground," she says. "I was hormonal, so I cried a lot. I was stressed. I missed home. I missed him. But he was great. He kept me calm. He's such a good man and good dad, which is one of the reasons why I fell in love with him."
In 2022, Eve gave birth to her healthy baby boy Wilde Wolf, and his siblings were thrilled to welcome him to the family.
"I was actually scared about that because when they were younger, I kind of felt like, 'Oh, maybe it'd be a bit easier to introduce a baby,'" she says. "But by the time I had gotten pregnant, they were mid-teens, preteens, and I was just like, 'Oh, are they going to want a little sibling at this point?' But they were so excited, and they are honestly the best big sisters and brother to him. They love him, and he loves them. It's really so sweet to see how happy he is when they're around."
Now, Wilde has "a little accent" and is preparing to start nursery school in a few weeks.
"Having my son has a lot to do with feeling like I can talk about this past stuff [in my book], because here is — literally — my future," she says.
Motherhood has taught Eve to "really live in the moment," she says. "I don't have anything to chase beyond the things that I want to build for him, us as a family. That is a very, very nice place to be."
Who's That Girl? is out Sept. 17. It's available for preorder now, wherever books are sold.
For more on Eve, pick up the latest issue of PEOPLE, on newsstands Friday, or subscribe here.
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Read the original article on People.
