Ne-Yo Says He’s Lost Work Due to Polyamorous Relationship With 3 Women
Akon is certainly not Mr. Lonely.
In fact, the “Lonely” singer, who previously kept coy about his polyamorous lifestyle, confirmed he has multiple wives who all work together to keep the house and build a harmonious relationship.
As for how many wives Akon has? He said on the May 19 episode of the We Need to Talk podcast, “I’ll just leave that to your imagination.”
But while the 53-year-old (whose legal name is Aliaune Badara Thiam) has multiple partners, he shared he’s the “only man” in his relationship dynamic, noting his wives aren’t allowed to have other partners.
Meanwhile, Akon—whose wife Tomeka Thiam filed for divorce in September after nearly three decades of marriage—explained there is a hierarchy in his relationship and that all of his partners must respect his first wife, though he didn’t specify if he was referring to Tomeka.
“That one is the reason you even got one, two or three. She’s the queen,” he continued. “Nobody violates wife No. 1. The moment they violate, [they are] out the door.”
As Akon sees it, it’s his first wife who is “actually sacrificing in the end.”
“With new people [joining] your family, there’s going to be new attitudes, new mindsets, new behaviors,” he added, “and [the first wife has] to deal with that.”
Still, the “Smack That” singer believes there is an upside for all of his wives in their polyamorous dynamic.
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“Oftentimes when the family is united in that way, the benefit is more for the woman than it is for the man,” he asserted, “because the man actually has to take care of all of them. He has to treat them all equally and their responsibility bears on him as well.”
In the end, though, Akon said his relationship dynamic works because it’s built on the belief that communication is “the answer and the solution.”
“You got to be mature enough to know that if this is the situation that I'm going to park in, I have to communicate,” he shared. “This I like, this I don't like. This I'm for, this I'm not for, and this is what I'm willing to deal with, and this is what I'm not willing to deal with. And once y'all lay down those rules, just abide by them. It's literally that simple.”
For more stars who have tried non-monogamy, keep reading…
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Akon
The "Lonely" singer confirmed he has multiple wives in May 2025.
As for how many? He said, “I’ll just leave that to your imagination.”
And while the musician has multiple rules as part of his polyamorous setup—including a hierarchy structure and that his wives can't have other partners—he emphasized they're making it work.
“You got to be mature enough to know that if this is the situation that I'm going to park in, I have to communicate,” he said on the We Need to Talk podcast. “This I like, this I don't like. This I'm for, this I'm not for, and this is what I'm willing to deal with, and this is what I'm not willing to deal with. And once y'all lay down those rules, just abide by them. It's literally that simple.”
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Jonathan Van Ness
The Queer Eye star and their husband Mark Peacock go through "seasons" of non-monogamy.
"I'm all about a season," Jonathan said on The Mitch Churi Chat Show in February 2026, noting that while many might see open relationships as a Pandora’s Box that can’t be closed back up once opened, "We have been able to thread that needle."
However, an open communication about boundaries is paramount to making it work.
"We've been able to go kind of back and forth based off of what is going on in our lives," the hairstylist added, "and that works for us."
What is off the table, though?
"Polyamorous is definitely not something I could do," the JVN Hair founder admitted. "I just don't have time to deal with a third person's needs. That's a lot."
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RuPaul
For RuPaul and his husband Georges LeBar, having an open relationship works because "it's just realistic," the TV host explained to The New Yorker in 2024. "There’s no such thing as monogamy with men."
And ultimately, it just made sense for the couple.
"We didn't decide," the RuPaul's Drag Race star, who met his husband at New York nightclub Limelight in 1994 some two decades before they wed, told Vanity Fair in 2019. "The hoax is that monogamy is actually something that can actually happen. I wouldn't want to put restraints on the person I love the most on this planet. I wouldn't do that to someone I love, my very best friend."
And having an open marriage doesn't make them question their love for each other.
"Listen, if you get something happening that you cannot resist and that's going to make you happy, go for it," RuPaul continued. "Go for it. Because the truth is, I know in my heart of hearts like I've never known anything before, that man loves me more than anything else in this world."
The Sister Wives Stars
Kody Brown once said, "Love should be multiplied, not divided."
And for decades, he was in a plural marriage with wives Meri Brown, Janelle Brown, Christine Brown and Robyn Brown—their journey documented on the series Sister Wives.
"I just fell in love," the father of 18 said on the first episode in 2010, "and then I fell in love again and I fell in love again."
However, he's since fallen out of love with polygamy. Christine and Kody announced their breakup in November 2021 and he and Janelle confirmed their separation in December 2022. A month later, Meri revealed their decision to "permanently terminate" their marriage. As a result, Robyn is Kody's sole wife.
"I'm not an advocate of plural marriage, but I've had my own experience in it and I've had my own failures in it," he told People in December 2023. "Because of that, I'm like, you got to be really, really wise about who is doing it, how they're doing it."
And while Kody said it can work for some people, he noted "there's those marriages that have people who know each other very, very, very well, and they still don't work."
Some of Kody's exes have since embraced monogamy—like Christine, who wed David Woolley in 2023 and has said on the show she "wouldn't live polygamy again." Others, like Janelle, have said they "would consider a plural marriage again."
As for wife Robyn, she said on a 2024 episode she'd do plural marriage again if she could guarantee a "positive successful experience."
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Willow Smith
Willow Smith brought a discussion on non-monogamy to the red table.
"With polyamory, I feel like the main foundation is the freedom to be able to create a relationship style that works for you," Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith's youngest said on a 2021 episode of Red Table Talk, "and not just stepping into monogamy because that's what everyone around you says is the right thing to do."
And Jada and fellow cohost Adrienne Banfield-Norris listened to what Willow had to say.
"The main reasons why monogamists' relationships or why marriage, why divorces happen is infidelity," the "Whip My Hair" artist continued. "Let's say you haven't always been the kind of person that wanted to have sex all the time, but your partner is. Are you gonna be the person to say, 'Just because I don't have these needs, you can't have them either?'"
But that doesn't mean they always agreed. And when Willow's Gammy raised questions about sex, Willow replied, "In my friend group, I'm the only polyamorous person, and I have the least sex out of all my friends."
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Shailene Woodley
Shailene Woodley believes the only opinions that matter in a relationship are the ones of the people in it.
"Listen, I’m someone who has experienced both an open relationship and a deeply monogamous relationship in my life, and I think we’re in a day and age where there should be no rules except for the ones designed by two people in a partnership — or three people, whatever floats your boat!" the Big Little Lies star told The New York Times in 2020. "But there has to be a level of responsibility in any relationship dynamic, and that responsibility is simply honesty and communication and trust. Apart from that, it’s really none of our business what people choose to do with their lives."
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Ne-Yo
When you’re mad at Ne-Yo about his polyamorous relationships, he doesn’t give it another thought.
"Them: 'NEYO WE DON'T APPROVE OF YOUR POLY RELATIONSHIP,'" the singer wrote on his Instagram Stories in February, later adding, “Fun fact: I don't care."
And Ne-Yo—who was married to Crystal Renay for almost seven years before they finalized their divorce in 2023—introduced the internet to his four girlfriends in March 2025.
"It works," the Grammy winner said on a February 2025 episode of the Rickey Smiley Morning Show. "Everybody’s honest. Everybody’s telling the truth. Everybody is consenting. I feel like I wasted a lot of time just being dishonest about things to the point where had I taken this approach initially I probably could have saved myself a lot of headache and heartache."
However, that doesn't mean polyamory works for everybody.
"Please understand that I'm not in here saying that everybody should try what I'm trying and do what I'm doing," Ne-Yo clarified. "I'm telling y'all what works for me. I'm showing y'all what works for me. And if you agree, cool. If you don't, cool. Either way you slice it, I'm happier than I've ever been, I'm more zen than I've ever been and that's what it is—that's the important part. I don't need everybody to agree. I'm not doing it for y'all."
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Nick Cannon
There’s been a lot of talk about Nick Cannon raising kids with multiple women. However, The Masked Singer host has shared his thoughts on monogamy before.
“That’s a Eurocentric concept when you think about the ideas of you're supposed to have this one person for the rest of your life, and really that's just a classified property when you think about it," he said on a 2021 episode of The Breakfast Club, later adding. "Just the idea that a man should have one woman, we shouldn't have anything. I have no ownership over this person. Like, if we really talking about how we coexist and how we populate, it's about what exchange can we create together? So, I've never really subscribed to that mentality."
Nick shares twins Moroccan and Monroe with ex-wife Mariah Carey, kids Golden Sagon, Powerful Queen and Rise Messiah with Brittany Bell, son Legendary Love with Bre Tiesi and daughter Onyx Ice with LaNisha Cole. In addition, the Wild 'n Out star welcomed three kids with Abby De La Rosa—twins Zion Mixolydian and Zillion Heir as well as daughter Beautiful Zeppelin—and two with Alyssa Scott: daughter Halo Marie and late son Zen.
"Those women and all women are the ones that open themselves up to say, 'I would like to allow this man in my world, and I will birth this child,'" Nick continued. "So, it ain't my decision. I'm following suit."
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Bella Thorne
While Bella Thorne has been in a relationship solely with fiancé Mark Emms since 2022, she'd previously been in non-monogamous relationships.
"It’s a really fun experience and I have been able to capture that a couple times, and I just love that idea,” the Disney Channel alum told Cosmopolitan in 2019. "I love loving two people at once. I love sharing stories with three people in one room. So, I’m always trying to find ways to make it work because I think it really would make me happy."
However, she understood it wasn’t the right fit for everyone.
“A lot of my partners start out like 'what?’ and I’m like, 'Bro, this is who I am,’” Bella added at the time. "So, you’re either down or you're not down and I totally understand if you’re not down. At this point in my life, I want to find what makes me the happiest, and that is the mission I am on. If you don’t want to be on that mission with me, then okay, I totally understand. If it will hurt you too much, then we’re not right for each other at this moment in my life because this is what I’m looking for.”
Joseph Okpako/WireImage
Yungblud
As for Yungblud, he's shared he identifies as pansexual and polyamorous.
"I probably would say now, I am polyamorous," the musician, also known as Dominic Harrison, told Attitude in 2020. "Before I didn’t f--king know what I was. I was meeting people and learning… by meeting them and talking about sexuality and gender, I [was] going, 'Oh my f--king God, maybe I’m this, if I’m going to be f--king close to anything on the spectrum.'"
Euan Cherry/Peacock
Bob the Drag Queen
Bob the Drag Queen has two partners and is happy they’re in other relationships too.
"I have a partner in L.A. and a partner in Georgia," The Traitors star said on an April 2025 episode of Boyfriend Material With Harry Jowsey. “They know each other. They’re not super close, but they do like each other. My partners also have partners too, which is great for me. I’m a really independent person, and I actually don’t like the idea of being someone's everything. I actually kind of get exhausted at the idea of being around someone all the time. So having your partner have a partner is really a gift."
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Nico Tortorella & Bethany C. Meyers
In 2018, Nico Tortorella and Bethany C. Meyers tied the knot and penned an essay about their relationship.
"If you had to label it, Nico and I are in a queer polyamorous relationship," the I Am More Than My Body author wrote in a piece for Them. "Labels that help people understand, but not labels that define us. Most think we planned this and one day decided we would be multiple-love kind of people. We didn’t. It’s just the way our relationship developed over 12 years."
However, Nico and Bethany's relationship shifted to monogamous during the coronavirus pandemic and as they welcomed kids Kilmer and Pesce Pearl.
"To answer your question point blank: Are you still open?" the Younger star noted on a 2024 episode of their podcast Full of Shift. "No. Right now, we're not."
However, they're, uh, open to the possibility of re-exploring non-monogamy again one day.
"Is that to say that in the future it could be different?" Nico continued. "Who knows?"
Sherri/YouTube
Omarion
From Omarion’s perspective, monogamy just doesn’t hit the right note.
And as the singer explained on a February 2025 episode of Sherri, "being open is important" to him.
"The women just truly outnumber the men," he told host Sherri Shepherd, later adding, "It’s only a few good men. Whether or not it’s a physical thing, we end up fostering the next generation as well….Why not have our queens align with that? It takes a village. It’s not gonna just be one man. You can get married—that man still aint going to be just your man. He’s gonna be there for his daughter, he’s going to be there for his mom, his grandmother.”
So as Omarion sees it, “This concept isn’t really foreign, it’s just a little old and it’s meant to be upgraded.” And he’d like there to be more discussions on the topic.
"I love this conversation because I think when men are open and honest that they don’t wanna have just this one thing for the rest of their life, it gives a woman the opportunity to choose and further understand a man," the musician added. "Because I think that women don’t really understand a man. Certain women do, but there’s a larger conversation that has to be had about understanding men and how we’re meant to spread our seed."
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