Chance the Rapper and wife Kirsten Corley will divorce after five years of marriage, they announced via matching statements on their social media accounts Wednesday.
“After a period of separation, the two of us have arrived at the decision to part ways, the statement shared to their respective Instagram Stories read. “We came to this decision amicably and with gratitude for the time we spent together. God has blessed us with two beautiful daughters who we will continue to raise together.”
The two share daughters Kensli, 7, and Maril, 4. They were married in 2019, but their first encounter was actually long before that, in 2003. Chance, born Chancelor Bennet, shared the story of their serendipitous first meeting, at an office party when he was just nine years old, on X (formerly known as Twitter) the week of their wedding. According to his thread, he went to an office party for the real estate office his mother worked for at the time, along with his father and brother.
“I was probably playing a Gameboy in a corner or eating candy, initially unimpressed by my surroundings,” he wrote of the night, but then something impressive happened: Three girls, “all a little bit older than me,” lip-synced and danced to Destiny’s Child’s “Independent Women, Part 1,” “conquering this choreography and mastering the art of lip-syncing in a way even the most professional performers have yet to accomplish.”
One of the three was “the prettiest girl I’ve ever seen in my almost-a-decade of life on earth. And I promise I can feel how I felt as I type this. I felt that shit lol.”
Despite his dad trying to get the young Chance, who had already started dancing, to show off moves of his own, he held back.
“This wasn’t the time or the place,” the thread continues. “Not just because it wasn’t my party, not because it was their moment to dance, not even cause I was nervous about dancing in front of folks. It’s cause I knew I was gonna marry that girl. And I ain’t wanna jump the gun.”
According to the story, he didn’t even introduce himself to Corley that night, reconnecting later and eventually beginning their relationship.
In the statement announcing their split, Chance and Corley concluded with a plea for space.
“We kindly ask for privacy and respect as we navigate this transition,” the statement read.