Faith Evans was married to late emcee The Notorious B.I.G. when she met Stevie J, but the producer wouldn't make his feelings known for her until years later.
The R&B legend, who was married to Stevie J from 2018 to 2023, looked back on the beginning of her friendship with the musician on the Wednesday (Dec. 10) episode of podcast Formula Features.
Around the 42-minute mark of the episode below, Evans explained that she was married to Biggie when she met Stevie, but the producer, along with Missy Elliott, would visit her often when she and the Ready to Die rapper separated.
Although the couple split in the mid-1990s, Evans was legally married to Biggie until his death in 1997. The two welcomed a son, Christopher "C.J." Jordan Wallace, the year before, while Evans also has an older daughter, Chyna, and later had two children with her second husband, Todd Russaw.
Evans later explained that she never thought of Stevie in an "intimate way" until they recorded her 2017 album The King & I, a tribute to Biggie.
"So I camped out in Atlanta for a minute and worked with Stevie. In one of them
sessions, Stevie came in the booth and kissed me," she said.
"And I never even thought I would ever even be in a place to even get with us, Stevie. I was married even after Big," she continued.
The "Love Like This" singer recounted Stevie saying that he'd been interested in her for years and that it "took a minute" for her to have mutual feelings.
"He was trying to convince everybody that knew us for this long like, 'No I really been loving her.' Like, girl, bye," she said.
Evans and Stevie J separated around 2020 after two years of marriage and settled the producer's request for spousal support, according to People. Stevie previously dated Mimi Faust and Joseline Hernandez, who are the mothers of two of his daughters and were his co-stars on Love and Hip Hop: Atlanta.