Teyana Taylor and Iman Shumpert are the ultimate multi-hyphenates, and now, they're adding yet another title to the mix: cover stars.
Joined by their two daughters, 6-year-old Iman Tayla "Junie" Shumpert Jr. and 19-month-old Rue Rose Shumpert, the power couple, appears on the cover of Ebony magazine's April 2022 issue, which E! News can exclusively reveal below.
Looking effortlessly chic in matching ensembles, the family posed outdoors on a comfy couch. For the issue, Teyana and Iman, both 31, also penned a first-person article, opening up about everything from the singer's latest tour and the NBA star's stint on Dancing With the Stars to their goals as parents and how they're building a legacy for their children.
"We're working to build generational wealth," Teyana wrote. "We're young and what I respect about Iman and my dynamic is that we empower and push one another to be better versions of ourself all across the board. I love that our relationship goes beyond just support, we hold each other accountable to be greater. We are the example for our girls."
Teyana—who is a dancer, a singer-songwriter, an actress, a director and a model—currently has several creative pursuits in the works as she wraps up the final leg of her The Last Rose Petal tour.
"I'm enjoying styling artists, and choreographing, and directing, and helping other creatives that are like me," Teyana said. "The difference is now, artists have me to see them and actually hear them and help them bring them their vision to life; that's important to me because I didn't have that. Which is why I started my all female production company, The Aunties."
In other project news, Teyana recently filmed a movie with A.V. Rockwell and Lena Waithe, and is currently developing a scripted series about Dionne Warwick's life. "She's put a majority of the creativity in my hands of myself and The Aunties," Teyana said of the iconic artist, "which is amazing."
Then there's NBA champion Iman, who became a fan-favorite contestant on season 30 of DWTS before winning the coveted Mirrorball trophy. Fresh off the show's subsequent tour, he said he's now "taking the time to get my body" right for a potential return to the league.
Ultimately, both Iman and Teyana are mainly focused on their children. Even when the singer is working, her two daughters are often by her side. "They are actually the life of the party," Teyana wrote. "My photoshoots often become Junie's shoot and Rue is usually somewhere stealing the show just because she's cute as pie. My family brings joy to my work."
That's not to say Teyana doesn't get overwhelmed, though—especially after the health scare she experienced while filming E!'s We Got Love Teyana & Iman. "I had to have emergency surgery in the middle of filming because there were small lumps found in my breast," she recalled. "Fortunately, they were not cancerous. However, the thought of the cancer scare with the lumps in my breasts, and the thought of my kids not having me around, was scarier than childbirth. Just the overall thought of something happening is one of my worst fears."
So when social media rumors began to spread that she allegedly abused drugs because of Iman's supposed infidelity—claims they've both shut down—while Teyana was still recovering from the health scare, she was naturally heartbroken.
"For someone to take that and make it a joke is extremely hurtful," she said. "It makes me emotional thinking about it. Both of my pregnancies were incredibly difficult because I had cholestasis, a rare liver disease that causes bile to build throughout the bloodstream, causing extreme itching and preterm and or stillborn birth. Which is the reason why both of my children delivered a month early."
She continued, "Pregnancy in general puts your body through a lot of stress. Being a mother in itself is a lot of stress. Although people look up to me for maintaining my career and still being able to be a mom and a wife, it's really not easy. Till this day I still struggle with postpartum depression."
Iman weighed in on the "disrespectful" rumors, adding, "I don't know where people get off. I live a real life and that's really my wife, these really are our kids, we really love each other, and we really going to go hard, like I'm not going to do this."
Read the full cover story when Ebony's April 2022 issue hits stands or on Ebony.com.