Getty R&B singer Mario performs onstage
Mario Dewar Barrett, known simply as Mario, will appear as one of the cast members on FOX’s production of Rent. Mario will play landlord Benjamin “Benny” Coffin III opposite the likes of Vanessa Hudgens, Kiersey Clemons, and fellow singer Tinashe. Mario’s high-profile role has led many to wonder whether he’s currently married to anyone, or at the very least, in a relationship.
According to Celebrity Biography, Mario is not married. In fact, the singer has never been married or engaged. The most prominent relationship he had was when he dated Jillian Barberie in 2004. He’s currently single. In a recent interview with Rap-Up, Mario said that he doesn’t use dating apps, but due to his status as a popular R&B singer, there’s no shortage of women who reach out to him on social media. “I don’t use dating apps, but my Instagram is a dating app,” he said. “You don’t need a dating app when your DMs is poppin’.”
Mario Has Never Been Married & Is Currently Single
In a separate interview with Vibe, Mario spoke on the kind of woman that usually attracts him. “For me, its kind of easy to balance that out,” he explained. “I’m not really out in the club every single night or trying to be that guy who f**king with all the latest models just to be able to say I bagged her, I don’t care about stuff like that. So you not going to find any gossip out about me and I don’t deal with crazy girls out here, I don’t have time for none of that.”
:You gotta be in your square as a woman, I need a conscious woman,” he added. “I didn’t bring myself this far… I’m not judging anyone, but if you want to be a writer then you should probably hang around writers or someone that can write better than you. So if I’m going to be intimate with a woman, I want to make sure I’m okay with being that person. Take on that vibration of whatever they got going on and if not, just because I understand what’s happening, a lot of people don’t understand whats happening during exchanges of sexual energy. So it’s like for me, you aren’t going to find me acting crazy.”
He Claims That Celibacy Has Strengthened His Outlook On Romance
The singer has also spoken at length about being celibate for a year, and how it changed his outlook on romance and dating. “I was celibate for almost a year. It works,” he told Hot 97. “It strengthens your spirit. I mean more than anything, when you really start to understand the physical experience that we have as individuals, you understand that the spirit is way stronger than the physical but if you feed your physical more than [the mental], that’s going to dominate.”
“So, I experimented with that and it’s something that I really wanted to go to a higher level spiritually,” he added. “I felt like it would affect my music differently. It would affect my career, my surroundings, the people, and it has.”