Ne-Yo is opening up about how his polyamorous relationship with three women works.
The R&B singer and songwriter appeared on the Wednesday (Jan. 14) episode of the talk show Sherri, where he spoke with host Sherri Shepherd about dating three girlfriends after his 2023 divorce from Crystal Renay.
When announcing her plans to divorce the father of her three children, Renay alleged that she endured eight years of “lies and deception,” accusing the “When You’re Mad” singer of repeatedly cheating throughout their marriage.
During his appearance on Sherri, Ne-Yo said his main goal in dating multiple women now is transparency and honesty.
“I own the things that I did in that marriage to mess it up. I own it completely,” he said. “And I decided I didn’t want to be the reason that anybody ever felt like that ever again.”
Ne-Yo shared that he had been seeing one of his girlfriends longer than the other two, and made sure to introduce everyone to each other before moving forward with a polyamorous setup.
“I think the the main understanding is I’m not in three relationships. I’m in one relationship with three people,” he said. “And we figure out ways to make everything work.”
The father of seven also joked that Valentine’s Day requires a little extra creativity. According to Ne-Yo, each girlfriend has her own taste, though they sometimes enjoy group outings together.
“As far as like where we go and what we do, that we decide together,” he explained. “We go to one restaurant. We go to one concert or whatever it is that we doing, and then everybody gets the individual gift, and everybody’s happy.”
When asked if juggling time with three partners ever feels exhausting, Ne-Yo responded playfully, saying, “I’ve never been afraid of hard work.”
Elsewhere in the conversation, the singer made it clear that while his girlfriends aren’t allowed to have another boyfriend, he doesn’t frame the dynamic as ownership.
“I deal in partnership as opposed to ownership,” he said. “I don’t want to own you. I don’t want to possess you. I want to partner in this, and we can partner and work it out that way. But if the exclusivity is mine, then it’s mine, damn it. You ain’t giving it to nobody else.”
Back in October, during an episode of the Joe and Jada podcast, Ne-Yo described his 2023 divorce as “ugly” and noted that his current relationships come with challenges similar to monogamous ones.
“All that shit is real. You going to argue over stuff, but again, at the end of the day, as long as you are head of household and everybody understands that, then arguments don’t last long,” he said at the time.
