Halle Bailey is opening up about her romantic relationship with rapper DDG, which she says feels like her first serious partnership.
“You know, you have puppy love experiences, you think that’s love,” the 23-year-old actor-singer told Cosmopolitan in an interview published Tuesday. “But this is my first deep, deep, real love.”
Rumors about the couple dating began swirling online in January 2022, with the duo confirming their relationship when Bailey celebrated DDG’s birthday with an Instagram post in October. She captioned the post, “happy happy birthday @ddg ♥️love you forever.”
Bailey celebrated her last day of doing press for “The Little Mermaid” in late May by posting a TikTok video of her excitedly giving DDG, 25, a hug and kisses. Her caption read, “on my last day of press like.. 🤣🤭😉”
The Grammy-nominated singer was asked if she planned to incorporate elements of her relationship with the “I’m Geekin” rapper in her new music.
“I don’t really talk about my personal stuff, but I will tell you where I get my creativity from. This has been a really beautiful transformative time for me. I have all this new material to write about,” Bailey told Cosmo. “It’s like, ‘What the heck did I just experience and go through?’ A whirlwind of amazingness. You never know what you’re capable of until you’re put through it.”
She added, “I was very creatively inspired, and then from there, I fell in love.”
Elsewhere in the interview, the “Grown-ish” actor spoke about shifting from a teen into an adult while being in the public eye and the process of maintaining and growing a fan base throughout the years.
“There’s a sort of protectiveness or ownership that people feel they have over your story because they’ve known you for so long. Part of me thinks that’s a beautiful thing, to know that you have that support from people and they just want to see good things happen to you,” she said.
“But it’s also really easy for us to comment on what other people are doing … to say a lot of stuff. I think the transition will continue to happen naturally. It’s on people to figure it out, not necessarily on me.”
