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Nicole Tuck is the wife of record producer, media personality, hip hop artist and songwriter DJ Khaled (real name Khaled Mohamed Khaled). With DJ Khaled helping usher in Super Bowl 2020 by DJing the pregame show, here’s what you need to know about his wife and mother to his children.
1. Tuck’s Family Has Experienced A Recent Tragedy
Tuck was born on December 7, 1975, in the New Rochelle suburb of New York City, the oldest of three children for Pauline Vitale and Elwood Tuck. According to her LinkedIn profile, she attended Marymount Manhattan College for a Bachelor’s degree in Fine Arts, then earned her Master’s in Education from Fordham University in 2005. Her sister, who goes by Freshie, also went to Fordham.
Nicole seems close to both of her parents. On her LinkedIn profile, she cites her father as her inspiration for her clothing line, writing, “When I learned that Abu meant father in Arabic, my inspiration grew! My father has an amazing drive and hard work ethic, while always having high spirits and never forgetting to wear great clothes, no matter what occasion! He also taught me how important it was to be true to myself, hence always be you!”
And on Instagram, Nicole and her mother frequently travel together. In 2014, they jetted off to Italy, Greece, and Turkey, then in 2015, they went to the Netherlands, the Czech Republic, Poland, and Austria on a couple of whirlwind trips through Europe.
Tragically, Nicole’s family lost her younger brother John, 25, in February 2018 when he was shot in a Bronx apartment. According to Page Six, Tuck was in the apartment to buy marijuana and was shot when Richard Jimenez and four others burst into the apartment intending to rob the drug dealer. Jimenez maintained the shooting was accidental, but after it happened, they all fled the scene.
Jimenez was eventually arrested and charged with the crime. In late 2019, Nicole wrote to the judge presiding over the case not to use leniency on her brother’s killer. “A life for a life,” she wrote, according to the New York Post. “We do not agree to any leniency in sentencing.”
Jimenez was sentenced to 20 years in prison for the crime, which was five years less than the maximum sentence he could have received. Before the sentence was handed down, Jimenez cried in the courtroom, “I would do anything, anything to bring him back. The guilt and pain is eating me alive. Sorry to everybody, I’m sorry.”
2. Tuck Started a Clothing Company
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In 2010, Tuck started ABU Apparel, which stands for “Always Be You.” The name symbolizes the idea to “never stop believing in the person you see in the mirror, to always have confidence in who you are no matter what shape, color, or size. Always be You no matter what. Believe in yourself and you can achieve anything!,” she writes on LinkedIn.
The brand’s signature style is described as “detailed, eclectic, ironic, bold, classic imagery” that “may make you think, laugh or perhaps broaden your mind through the art, music or cultural references” and “will represent all walks of life” by reflecting the places Nicole lives and loves, New York and Miami.
Unfortunately, it looks like ABU Apparel is no longer in operation. The Twitter account has been quiet since 2013 and the domain in its bio no longer works. But if you’re dying to own a piece of Nicole Tuck’s clothing line, there are a few tops on Poshmark.
3. Tuck and DJ Khaled Have Been Together Over a Decade
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According to Elite Daily, the couple has been together since at least 2007, though they have always remained mum about how they met. But it might be back even farther than that. Summary reports that they met in the 1990s before DJ Khaled was famous. Then in the People article about the birth of their first son, Tuck is referred to as Khaled’s “longtime fiancee,” and that was in late 2016, so they’ve been together for quite a while.
And Tuck must feel pretty confident about their relationship because it weathered the infamous publicity stunt where Khaled proposed to Nicki Minaj on MTV in 2013. At the time, Minaj was just as surprised by it as everyone else and quickly outed the gag as a stunt to promote his new album, telling Funkmaster Flex that they’re like “brother and sister.”
“I was shocked just like the rest of the world and I was cracking up laughing with the rest of the world ’cause Khaled is a master at what he does,” said Minaj. “Nobody in my real life took it seriously. Everybody just hit me like, ‘LOL. Yo, Khaled is crazy.’ Khaled is my brother and Khaled was not serious with that damn proposal, y’all. Please let it go. He was kidding. He’s not attracted to me, he doesn’t like me. We’re brother and sister.”
4. Khaled and Nicole Have Two Children Together
The couple welcomed their first son, Asahd, on October 23, 2016, then welcomed son No. 2, Alam, on January 20, 2020 (a day after the above photo was posted to Instagram). Khaled famously Snapchatted the first birth live for all the world to see, but then scaled things back a bit for the second birth — that one was only chronicled on Instagram.
“I’ve always wanted kids,” he told People when they announced their first pregnancy. “This is my first kid and I’m excited and I want more. I’ve always wanted to be a family man. I’m in a great family and I want to have my own family at the same time … I want to spoil our kids and give them everything. There’s no limit to the spoiling that I’m going to do. I’m going to spoil them to the minute they in my hands. I’m going all out.”
When Asahd was just a month old, Nicole dressed him up for the American Music Awards, posting a pic on Instagram of the baby in a custom tuxedo, writing, “Many more to come, gotta get those suits ready! Lol.”
5. Khaled Does Not Perform Oral Sex on His Wife
ok so I’m convinced he has the mind of a teenage boy
In a 2015 video that resurfaced in 2018, Khaled famously said that he does not perform oral sex on his wife but he expects her to do so for him.
“Never! I don’t do that. … It’s different rules for men. You gotta understand, we the king. There’s some things that y’all might not wanna do, but it got to get done. I just can’t do what you want me to do. I just can’t,” said Khaled.
“A woman should praise the man — the king,” the rapper added. “If you holding it down for your woman I feel like the woman should praise. And a man should praise the queen. But you know, my way of praising is called, ha-ha, ‘How was dinner?’, ‘You like the house you living in? You like all them clothes you getting?”
After the video resurfaced, Khaled got dragged on Twitter by celebrities and non-famous people alike.
@TheRoot Ahem.. *clears throat*
as a man, I take great pride in mastering ALL performances. This is probably a little TMI.. I will now quietly excuse myself from this fun thread 👀
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Nicole Tuck, DJ Khaled’s Wife: 5 Fast Facts to Know