Nicole Murphy Responds After Photos Show Her Kissing Married Director Antoine Fuqua
Photos of model Nicole Murphy kissing director Antoine Fuqua in Italy were snapped on Saturday and now Murphy is clearing the air.
The 51-year-old Murphy is seen in two photos kissing the 53-year-old director, who has been married to actress Lela Rochon for 20 years and with whom he has two children, according to Entertainment Tonight.
The first photo shows the model in a bikini kissing Fuqua, who has a blue towel wrapped around his waist, while they both hold coffee cups. The second shows the pair lounging poolside at a hotel in Ischia with Murphy leaning into Fuqua as the two kiss.
Murphy spoke about the photos with LoveBScott.
“Antoine and I are just family friends,” she said. “I ran into him in Italy and we exchanged a friendly hello and that was it.”
Fuqua, who directed The Equalizer and Training Day, was in Italy to receive an award for Director of the Year at the Ischia Global Fest, which Murphy also attended.
Murphy previously appeared on Hollywood Exes, the VH1 show that followed A-list ex-wives. Murphy was married to Eddie Murphy from 1993 to 2006.
People reported that an insider recently told them Fuqua and his wife were seen “together a few weeks ago at their son’s basketball game and[they] looked like a happily married couple.”
“She was wearing her ring and they seemed perfectly happy,” the insider said.
Antoine Fuqua seen kissing model Nicole Murphy while married to Lela Rochon https://t.co/pQHDep5YKx pic.twitter.com/WlYvqwge9x
— Page Six (@PageSix) July 23, 2019
According to Extra, Rochon, who starred in Waiting to Exhale, has since deleted her social media accounts.
But the actress has support from fans and famous friends alike. Actress LisaRaye McCoy, who starred in the 1998 film The Players Club, blasted Murphy on Instagram saying, “Gurl, you went after [Rochon’s] husband too?…smh So wrong… again!”
According to Madame Noire, McCoy’s sister Da Brat said that McCoy was referring to her ex-husband Michael Misick, the former Premier of Turks and Caicos. When asked if Murphy went after McCoy’s husband, the rapper responded.
“Absolutely. When my sister was the First Lady of the Turks and Caicos, absolutely,” she said. “Absolutely. It was a couple of them hoes that did that.”
McCoy and Misick divorced in 2008 after five years of marriage, with him subsequently resigning his post as Premier.
Sports analyst Shannon Sharpe also responded on Twitter saying, “They’re just friends. That’s my girl and I love her,” followed by a series of laughing emojis.
The former football star announced his crush on Murphy on Twitter back in 2017 and has since made no effort to hide his feelings for Murphy.
Neither Fuqua nor Rochon have commented on the photos yet.
