In the past 14(ish) months, R&B singer Teyana Taylor and Cleveland Cavaliers guard Iman Shumpert have delivered (yes, delivered, in the bathroom) their daughter, Junie; appeared in the oiliest music video of all time (Kanye West’s “Fade”); added rings to their jewelry collection (of both the NBA Championship and wedding variety—the latter in a secret ceremony next to their bathroom, “at the crime scene,” as Teyana says); and, to cap it off, shared a lovely, subtle Valentine's Day Instagram that confirms they are indeed the Sexiest Couple Alive. So we dressed them in animal prints and asked: What do you do in Cleveland?
GQ: How often are you two even in the same city at this point?
Iman Shumpert: She usually tries to line her schedule up with mine so that she’s home in Cleveland when I’m home. And then she’ll line up her events and things she needs to knock out for when I’m gone on road trips. And then we just make up the difference at home.
Teyana Taylor: [This is] like our first time being away from each other for this long, and it’s because I was working on an album, but if I wasn’t working on an album, I would probably fly to every city. So far it’s been two days, and it feels like two months.
What does an exciting couple like you do in the very exciting city of Cleveland?
T.T.: We actually have a ball. I ain’t even going to front. We love the movies. We love a movie and popcorn night at the house as well. We like good restaurants. [We] take Junie to Chuck E. Cheese's. When you’re with the person you don’t mind being with all day every day, y’all could be in like West Bumblefuck and still have a great time.
So describe a night at Chuck E. Cheese's with Junie.
I.S.: Junie's going to eat more pizza than us. She is going to throw stuff. She’s going to go to other people’s tables and try to take stuff. She’s going to try to scratch other kids. As soon as she gets home, she just passes out because she has exerted way too much energy, doing whatever she’s doing. But she loves it. She loves anything that’s got a lot going on. Like she loves basketball. She comes to the game. She stares at the Jumbotron. She knows when to stand up and clap.
Do Mom and Dad get competitive on the games at Chuck E. Cheese’s?
T.T.: You know what’s crazy? It’s really us against the world because the games at Chuck E. Cheese's, there’s nothing to play each other against. It’s really more me and him versus the game. Trust me, we beat them. We be like, nah, nah, and we’ll just keep playing them until we get mad tickets.
What are you spending those hard-earned tickets on?
I.S.: Whatever Junie points at or whatever Teyana thinks she’ll like.
What parts of Mom and Dad do you see in Junie?
T.T.: She eats, sleeps just like Iman. Same pose. They're both greedy. They both love to poop. They are so alike in so many ways. And then she’s like me as far as the curious parts. I’m like Curious George. My friends call me Jimmy Neutron. I’m always into gadgets and different stuff.
I.S.: Junie is always—
T.T.: Always in something. Always busy.
I.S.: And once you let her have it, she don’t want it anymore. She only wants it because it ain’t hers.
T.T.: Right. She only wants it because we’re like, “Give it here.”
Is she the most stylish out of you three?
T.T.: Oh, yeah, definitely Junie. She got the juice. I mean people send her clothes left and right. “Where is Junie?” “How is Junie?” They don’t care about us.
You guys have had a crazy 14-15 months. What stands out the most?
I.S.: Getting married.
T.T.: I mean what made that so dope is because—we’ve never shared this—but we literally got married in our room in front of our bathroom here where Junie was born, so it was very special. That was definitely a major, major highlight of the year and one of the best things of my life.
Wait. You got married in the bathroom?
T.T.: It was like our bathroom in our room, so right in front of the bathroom. We have double doors, so we opened the doors. Pretty much, we got married at the crime scene. It was a really special moment to get married in that home period.
What're you guys doing as a family when you’re at home?
T.T.: We’re busy looking for Junie. Because she's crawling and trying to walk now, and my husband’s like, “Okay, Junie’s way too quiet. Where’s Junie?” She walked somewhere, and she’s like twelve steps up with something in her mouth that should not be in her mouth. The majority of the time, we’ll put Junie [down to] nap, and we love naps, all three of us. Junie, man, Junie’s the best. Because she kind of just be rolling with the homies, she’s cool with the vibe. We sleep, she sleeps. We’re up, she’s up. We move around, she moves around. Except when me and Iman be lovey-dovey, then she can be cock-blockin’.
I.S.: There’s times that we’re not [completely] woke yet, but we know she’s up, so we’ll change her Pamper and she just sort of crawls around the room and does her own thing for a while until we wake up. She doesn’t do anything crazy.
T.T.: Iman is just ashamed because there’s been times when he and Junie would be up, and I would be knocked out, and he would literally watch her crawl on my face, sit on my face. It’s almost like they’re both like, “Mom, you need to wake up.” But Iman puts it on Junie to make it seem like she’s trying to wake me up when really he wanted me to wake up too. And then by the time he finally grabs her like, “Oh, let Mommy sleep,” I’m already up. So he make it look like he’s doing something; he’s really not doing anything. This is the first time I’ve ever spoken. I don’t think he knew that I’ve ever noticed that.
Iman, did she nail it?
I.S.: Yeah, she nailed it.
T.T.: Definitely nailed it.
What’s one thing each of you do that embarrasses the other one?
T.T.: Oh my God. Iman does this thing. We can be at dinner, or in a quiet room, and you just hear him singing a whole bunch of Teyana Taylor songs! Songs that’s not even out yet. He sings all of them in falsetto. And then he has the nerve to add his own adlibs on my songs!
I.S.: I think she fails to realize that I really enjoy music, and she makes music that I’ve always listened to, that type of vibe. When she makes songs, they get stuck in my head quick. I get that we’re married, but if I like the song, I’m not going to be like, “Oh, I’m not going to sing it because I don’t want to seem like I like my wife’s song too much.”
You guys are both into music, and I know you’ve done some music together before. Who’s your dream third collaborator?
I.S.: Andre 3000.
T.T.: Hell yeah. Or CeeLo Green. Junie loves CeeLo.
How did Junie discover him?
T.T.: Iman used to sing to my belly when I was pregnant with her, and he would sing this one song called “Smiley Faces.” I remember one time we had to do this 3-D ultrasound. We couldn’t get her to turn around. We couldn’t even get her to move. She was actually kind of being really stubborn. And he’s like, “Okay, what are we going to do?” And Iman put that onto my stomach. We were able to get the picture of her face. Now when she cries or something, and we play the song, it’s like she remembers the song. She goes crazy. That and “Fade.” Anything that has anything to do with me or Iman or CeeLo Green, she knows. Even if it’s just a basketball game, and it’s not necessarily Iman’s team playing, “Da da. Da da.” She knows that he plays ball.
I.S.: Oh, she definitely knows “Fade.” When we turn it on, she sort of looks around.
T.T.: She just starts dancing and bouncing. She's going crazy.
Does she know the dance as well as Mom?
I.S.: Yeah, she knows the part where she laid down at the end and sort of turned her body and laid sideways. She does that all the time.
How much coconut oil was required for that shoot?
T.T.: Oh, a lot. We are at the point where I’m about to come out with my own coconut line. It’s only right.
How do you navigate the complications or difficulties of having such a public relationship?
I.S.: Communication. We communicate on a day-to-day basis and just know what’s going on with each other so much that [between] the things that we’re supposed to do as far as our job goes and as far as just checking in, there’s no real room for the nonsense.
T.T.: We can be on FaceTime for like 80 hours straight. [There’s] never really time to be like, “This happened in this hour. Where were you this hour?” Because we literally talk every minute of the day.
I.S.: Yeah, but it’s one of those things that even if we’re not talking, we know each other is working.
T.T.: I think what other people would consider a struggle is the fact that when you are doing good, there’s always people that want to bring you down and see you fail. So they’re going to do whatever it takes to try and make that happen. But I think what has made us strong is we have put [in] a lot of years and a lot of love. So it was like, at this point, nobody can really break us apart. We don’t have any struggle with regards to that because it’s like people’s stories aren’t good enough. It’s almost like, “Okay, you said you did this—“ literally me, him, and Junie were just at practice, [or] we were just at my soundcheck, so when does he have time to do that?
I.S.: It’s one of the feelings where you’ve got to know what’s real life and what’s not. Yeah, you post a picture or you post a video and people get a little clip of your life, but on the day to day, we’re just really regular. A lot of stuff doesn’t bother us. No matter how much fame the “Fade” video did, or with her album or her tour selling out, us winning the championship. At the end of the day, we’re both homebodies. And we try to make sure the arguments we do have are only over the remote control. [For instance] the other day, I set up a studio session and photo shoot, knowing I had leave for a road trip, and she was just sort of like, “Bro, that could be family time, and you setting this up.” So we nitpicked at that for a second, and that didn’t even last, but it’s like those are our type of arguments, and I’d like to keep it like that. She was like, “This could be a day that you, me, and Junie could just kick it.”
This interview has been edited and condensed.