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When a Love Jones gets in your bones, there’s no fighting it. Vocal powerhouse Deborah Cox discovered the power of love one stormy night in 1994 as her high school friend and songwriting partner Lascelles Stephens prepared to board a plane from Toronto to Los Angeles. “I had finally worked up the nerve to tell him how I felt and I told him everything,” recalls Cox. “And he said the feelings were mutual.”
The “How Did I Get Here” singer’s do-or-die mantra helped jump-start an everlasting romance. Only six months later following a late-night studio session, Stephens decided to seal the deal with a backdrop of the Golden Arches. “We stopped in Mickey D’s to grab a bite to eat and when he sat the tray down there was a box,” says Cox with a laugh. “I started screaming and everyone thought there was a rat or something in my food. When I finally calmed down he asked, ‘Will You?’ and of course I said yes and everyone clapped for us.”
Not yet the renowned chanteuse, Cox and Stephens remained engaged for seven years. “We weren’t making a lot of money and I wanted to have a nice, intimate ceremony, so we waited until we could afford it.” The lovebirds who have since tripled their family with three children—Isaiah, 5; Sumayah, 2, and Kaila, 1 month—opted for a destination wedding in Negril, Jamaica, with 70 family and friends to bear witness of their love. Cox wore a wedding gown by African designer Agale and Stuart Weitzman shoes to complete her look. “It was a simple but beautiful wedding,” says Cox. The singer is now promoting her new CD, “The Promise,” touring Canada now and Australia in August, and doing “exactly what I dreamed of.”
Check out Deborah Cox’s new CD, “The Priomise,” In stores now.