In an exclusive interview with People Magazine, Deion Sanders and Tracey Edmonds opened up about their relationship, revealing “We understand each other.”
After meeting at a movie premiere party years after his retirement, Hall of Fame athlete (and now football coach) Sanders and Edmonds have been inseparable. Sanders, hailing from both the NFL and MLB, and Edmonds a major businesswoman and Hollywood producer, are the textbook definition of a power couple. The couple has been together for nine years and is engaged.
Sanders and Edmonds recently sat down with People to discuss their relationship and its beginnings, their 2014 series Deion’s Family Playbook, and how they’ve made it work all of these years.
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Detailing the start of their relationship, the couple explained that a meeting to discuss Sanders’s idea for a reality show (that would later become Deion’s Family Playbook) led to the couple eventually dating.
Edmonds told People, “I started off thinking I was just going to produce [the show]…But as I started working with Deion on the show, we grew quite fond of each other and ended up dating.” She continued, “I would’ve never imagined in a million years that our paths would cross and that we’d end up in a relationship together.”
Edmonds was married to music legend Kenneth “Babyface” Edmonds for almost 15 years before divorcing in 2005. Edmonds and Babyface have two sons, Brandon and Dylan.
Sanders revealed to the magazine that Edmonds’ work ethic immediately impressed him, explaining, “I understood that she was a various businesswoman and had a wonderful reputation of being classy, professional, and a real woman.” He even referred to meeting Edmonds as “the blessing of his life.”
The secret to their success as a couple? A mutual understanding and honor of their commitments outside of the relationship.
Speaking to the fact that sometimes their careers force them to spend time away from each other as a couple, Sanders told the magazine, “I love what both of us contribute to society and to this world…it’s not just a separation because you want to be separated, it’s a separation because you are active and you are really influencing lives.”
He continued, “I mean what she does, I don’t take for granted whatsoever, and the shows that she chooses to produce, they’re meaningful, they have substance, they’re informative and challenging, and I love that about it.”
Sanders also confessed that what works for them is that they don’t “need a lot” at this point in their relationship.
He revealed, “We’re at the age and stage where I don’t think neither of us needs a lot. What I mean a lot is 10, 15 calls a day and all that. Tracey is busy, Tracey is a go-getter, she is that. And, I get up early and she knows I’m up working out and I’m ready to go get it. … It’s a blessing, but we understand each other because we’re busy in our own right.”
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