Heavy .
During one of the biggest weeks of his career in recent years, Grammy-winning rapper and HGTV star Lil Jon has revealed he and his wife of nearly 20 years, Nicole Smith, are in the process of getting a divorce.
The news comes amid a particularly busy time in Lil Jon’s professional life. On February 11, 2024, he appeared during Usher’s Super Bowl halftime show, performing their 2004 hit song “Yeah!” The following night, HGTV premiered the second season of his home renovation show, “Lil Jon Wants to Do What?”
Next, Lil Jon will cap off the busy week by releasing his first-ever guided meditation album, called “Total Meditation.” During an interview with XXL Magazine published on February 13, Lil Jon revealed that he got into meditation as his marriage started to crumble.
Rep for Lil Jon Confirms Separation From His Wife
GettyLil Jon with Nicole Smith and their son, Nathan, at the Pencils of Promise Gala in 2019
Lil Jon, 52, told XXL that he’s “always kind of meditated a little bit,” but it wasn’t until his split from Nicole that he started getting deeply into the practice.
“It was when I turned 50, started going through a lot of things,” he said. “Started going through a divorce — I’m separated now — and all the emotions from the divorce and all that process was really getting to me. So, I found I had to start to go within to calm myself.”
Lil Jon, whose real name is Jonathan Smith, married Nicole in November 2004, though her identity was not made public at the time, according to MTV. The outlet said their wedding was held in Puerto Rico in front of 80 guests, including rumored attendees Usher and Snoop Dogg.
The couple rarely appeared in public together, though they did appear on an episode of “Tiny House Nation” in 2017 with their son, Nathan, who’s now 26. He has been DJing since he was 11, Lil Jon told The Big Podcast in 2023, and goes by the stage name Young Slade.
In 2014, Lil Jon told the Huffington Post that he and Nicole were strict parents at home and committed to growing in their marriage.
“You learn to adapt to people as time goes by,” he said, “because nobody’s damn perfect. And you also change. You see stuff that you do that’s not perfect and you change yourself a little bit to fit in with your spouse.”
Following his admission to XXL that he and Nicole have since split, a rep for Lil Jon issued a statement to People that said, “Nearly two years ago, Lil Jon and his wife Nicole decided to separate. This is an amicable split, and while Lil Jon is a public figure, his family matters will remain private at this time.”
Lil Jon Says He Hopes People Are Inspired Seeing a ‘Crazy Party Guy’ Benefiting From Meditation
Expanding on how meditation helped him deal with the stress of his marriage ending, Lil Jon told XXL, “I found formal meditation and saying affirmations helped me to be more at peace. Throughout that process, I really, really got into it. And it really helped me to be more calm and to really elevate myself more spiritually.”
Through his attorney, Lil Jon said, he met Kabir Sehgal, founder of production company and record label Tiger Turn, which specializes in “projects promoting social good” including jazz, classical and guided meditations. The two hit it off and decided to create the “Total Meditations” album, with Sehgal as producer.
“It was perfect timing because of all of what I was going through,” Lil Jon told XXL, adding that he’s now “super into health and I’m super into just being a better human being.”
“I kinda got an epiphany while I was going through all of that stuff,” he explained, “that the universe wants me to put out more health messages to and to teach people more about being healthy. You know, mental health is a major, big, big thing going on in all of our communities now. By meditating, it helps you deal with those stresses from life.”
Lil Jon continued, “So if I could show people (who) normally wouldn’t even think about doing meditation to check it out, I feel like I’m doing one of my life’s purposes, helping people.”