Kehlani and Victoria Monét's Secret Relationship Didn't Stay Hidden for Long

The music industry is riddled with secrets that eventually come to light, whether in the moment or years, even decades later. Fortunately, not all of them are sinister. Some of them are just moments that make us go, "huh? How did we miss that?"

Over the years, singers Kehlani and Victoria Monét have kept the girls gagging when they discover that the R&B croon-stresses used to be an item. The pair dated before either becoming mothers, having a secret marriage, or having a scandalous, public custody dispute.

Though Victoria and Kehlani's relationship was brief, fans beg them to reunite and do so out loud the second time. Here's a look at the timeline of the partners in rhyme's relationship.

Kehlani and Victoria's relationship began in 2018. While the artists kept their fling a secret at the time, Victoria used her 2020 song, "Touch Me," to give fans a glimpse into their time together. The lyrics include addressing a woman in the sensual song with lyrics like "I'm in love with your fingertips, I reminisce places you kiss; Girl, it's been too long."

In November 2018, the "On My Mama" singer came out as bisexual on X (formerly Twitter), telling her fans "I also like girls" when discussing what she's looking for in her next relationship following a "difficult breakup."

Victoria and Kehlani's overtly private romance fizzled out before fans even knew it was a thing. In 2020, Victoria confirmed their romance in an interview with Gay Magazine. While she didn't name any names, she said they fell in love when she came out on X in 2018. She said that she was "going through a lot emotionally" then and was dealing with her breakup with her boyfriend and the news of Kehlani's pregnancy, which she said happened when Kehlani was in a polyamorous relationship.

"I literally fell in love with a girl,” Victoria told the outlet. "And I had a boyfriend at the time, and then we broke up. But this woman ended up getting pregnant because she had a boyfriend in a polyamorous relationship. There were a lot of things that I was personally going through that I didn’t speak about. But at the time, my boyfriend was still claiming that he was still my boyfriend after we’d broken up, and I decided I was really upset about it, and going through a lot emotionally, so I decided to tweet it."

After opening up about her and Kehlani's relationship without cleverly discussing the "After Hours" singer by name, they continued facing dating rumors. The exes fueled the allegations by collaborating on a "Touch Me (Remix)." The song inspired by their brief romance included Kehlani as Victoria's love interest and serving steamy lyrics like, "You begging me to make a move, I'm begging for a sip of juice, you bear my favorite kind of fruit, you're my favorite kind of muse."

The duet involved Victoria and Kehlani being in the studio together. At the time, Kehlani had welcomed her daughter, Adeya Nomi with her former partner, Javaughn Young-White, and Victoria had begun dating her boyfriend, John Gaines, and was pregnant with their child, Hazel. Despite the opportunity for an awkward moment, Victoria told Emily Ratajkowski on her podcast, High Low with EmRata, (20:23) that John, to her surprise, was unbothered by them working on the song together.

"I did the Touch Me remix with Kehlani, and the song is about her," Victoria said. "And I was pregnant, but we went into the studio and he would be there and there was no jealousy. It was just like, 'do you really love me?' because you're not jealous."'

In addition to confirming that the dating rumors between her and Kehlani were true, Victoria provided an update on their stand. The "Alright" singer told Emily Ratajkowski on her podcast (see 21:00) that she and Kehlani managed to remain friends, which she said often happens with her exes.

"It's kind of like that with all of my past relationships," Victoria said. "I really don't like the idea of like, 'now someone's dead to me.'

"I mean, some of my relationships ended where they did me wrong for sure," she added. "But like, I don't know, I just got over it, and where I like to have that kind of an open connection, you know like I don't want to like kill somebody off and be like I can't there's a rule of me not to speak to them because I feel like that takes even more energy to like try to avoid people and to try and hate them."

Although Victoria maintained she and Kehlani were just friends in 2023, the talented former paramours both became single in 2024. In June 2024, Kehlani had her marriage to her ex-wife, Mariel Gomez, annulled after two months of marriage. Soon after, her ex-partner, Javaughn, filed a lawsuit against her, demanding full custody of their daughter. Kehlani countersued and accused her daughter's father of physical, emotional, and verbal abuse.

Months after Kehlani's relationship and legal drama, Victoria announced she had ended her relationship after over four years together. Victoria shared in an Instagram statement that the couple had broken up months ago and decided to address "in hopes to put a period on the question marks for the sake of our healing process." The Grammy winner also stated she and John "still completely adore and respect each other" and plan to continue raising their daughter as a family.

With Victoria and Kehlani both being back on the market, fans think the timing couldn't be better for them to take another shot at love, and publicly this time. One X user even accused their 2010s breakup for all of the 2024's chaos.

"Victoria Monét and Kehlani need to get back together to close the portal they created," the user posted. "S--t been wonky every since they went baby for baby on each other."

No word on if Victoria and Kehlani take the fans' advice, but here's hoping!