LL Cool J discovered love along with his spouse, Simone I. Smith, after they had been youngsters.
The rapper and host of the 2025 MTV Video Music Awards met his longtime love in 1987 in New York Metropolis, and so they dated for about eight years earlier than tying the knot in 1995. All through their relationship, LL Cool J (actual title: James Todd Smith) and Simone have began a household collectively, supported one another’s careers and lifted one another up throughout laborious occasions — together with Simone’s journey with bone most cancers in 2004.
Maintain scrolling to see every little thing to learn about LL Cool J’s spouse:
Who Is LL Cool J’s Spouse?
Simone and LL Cool J each grew up in Queens, New York. Right this moment, she is a jewellery designer who based her personal line, Simone I. Smith Jewellery, in 2011.
In keeping with the model’s web site, Simone grew to become impressed to start out her jewellery line after she was identified with stage III chondrosarcoma, a uncommon sort of bone most cancers, in her proper leg in 2004.
“After surgical procedure, she found that the lollipop tattoo on her leg was altered. That was the inspiration for her signature lollipop pendant, ‘A Candy Contact of Hope,’” the web site reads. “Then got here hoop earrings, bangles, necklaces and her assortment of males’s jewellery. By her partnership with the American Most cancers Society, she donates a portion of proceeds from every sale to the continuing struggle in opposition to the illness, in each type.”
Simone underwent a 15-hour surgical procedure to interchange the bone, in addition to a rehabilitation interval. She has been cancer-free since then.
LL Cool J stayed by his spouse’s aspect all through her most cancers journey.

LL Cool J and Simone I. Smith Jeff Kravitz/Getty Photos for MTV
“You don’t abandon somebody in that foxhole,” he mentioned in a 2013 interview. “You gotta be there in that foxhole with them. I made some choices professionally and determined to be by Simone’s aspect extra throughout that interval.”
How Did LL Cool J and Simone I. Smith Meet?
LL Cool J and Simone met by a mutual buddy, the NCIS: Los Angeles actor revealed on Jimmy Kimmel Reside! in 2012.
“It was Easter and I used to be driving down the block in my mom’s automotive,” he mentioned, including that he stopped to say good day to a buddy, who requested if he wished to fulfill their cousin.
“I appeared over and mentioned, ‘Oh yeah, I’ll meet your cousin,’” LL Cool J continued.
LL Cool J revealed in his 1997 memoir, I Make My Personal Guidelines, that he proposed to Simone throughout a journey in his automotive.
“I drove my Porsche 110 m.p.h. and wouldn’t decelerate till she mentioned sure!” he wrote.
The couple bought married on August 7, 1995.
Do LL Cool J and Simone I. Smith Have Youngsters?
Simone and LL Cool J welcomed son Najee in September 1989, adopted by daughter Italia in January 1991. Their second eldest daughter, Samaria, was born in September 1995. The couple’s youngest baby, daughter Nina, was born in August 2000.
Simone and LL Cool J are additionally grandparents to Italia’s three youngsters.