Matthew Lawrence is constantly impressed by the “maturity level” of girlfriend Rozonda “Chilli” Thomas after nearly three years of dating.
“We’re just incredibly good friends. We get along. We see eye to eye on so many things,” Lawrence, 45, exclusively told Us Weekly on August 20 of his partner, 54, while promoting The Lawrence Brothers Detective Agency graphic novel. “I love the way she thinks. I could go on and on.”
He revealed, “It’s a very healthy relationship, and that is a beautiful thing, because I don’t know if there’s a lot of those out there. I sure as heck have not experienced it. So, it’s great. She’s amazing.”
The “Brotherly Love” podcast cohost explained that he and Chilli “don’t have a lot of friction,” but when there is friction, it’s “good.”
“The things that come out of it are always better results, and we always treat each other with this incredible respect,” said Lawrence, who was previously married to Cheryl Burke from 2019 to 2022. “Even though we have disagreements, and we can maybe not be in a great mood, or there can be tension — it’s like neither one of us are willing to break that line where we snap.”
Lawrence, who has been dating the TLC singer since late 2022 following his divorce, noted that losing someone’s respect can ruin a relationship, which is why he and Chilli work so hard to maintain a positive dynamic. (Chilli, for her part, shares son Tron, 28, with ex Dallas Austin.)
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“It’s really hard to look at somebody the same way again after they’ve, like, really said some things to you in a nasty way,” he said. “So, we just don’t go there with each other. We resolve things.”
The Brotherly Love alum reiterated that there’s “really not a lot of conflict,” which is the key to their lasting romance. “It’s pretty amazing,” he gushed.
Matthew, who has worked alongside his brothers, Joey Lawrence and Andrew Lawrence, on and off for decades, told Us that bringing Chilli into different projects has also been a positive for their relationship.
Their most recent joint venture is the brothers’ graphic novel, The Lawrence Brothers Detective Agency, which features fellow ’90s icons — including Chilli, who Joey, 49, and Andrew, 37, teased took some convincing to sign on.
“He had to beg. He had to grovel,” Joey joked during the siblings’ joint interview with Us. “‘Please, baby. Oh, please, please, baby.’”
Andrew chimed in, teasing that Matthew had to employ the song “Ain’t Too Proud to Beg” to get Chilli to agree to be part of the graphic novel. Matthew, however, told Us that his girlfriend had no issues helping the brothers out.
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“She [is] real, super supportive of us and me. When I brought her this … she was down,” Matthew recalled. “She just wanted to be there.”
All jokes aside, Andrew said that Chilli had “no hesitation” and was “so cool” about the entire process. He noted that the musician has “such a big heart and [was] willing to help out.”
The Lawrence Brothers Detective Agency is an upcoming graphic novel cocreated and written by the Lawrence brothers and the Berkowitz brothers, with additional writing by Brian Yuran and artwork by Sean Von Gorman.
According to the siblings, the project is 15 years in the making, beginning with an idea when Andrew was about 10 or 11.
“We were all on a family vacation, and we were coming up with these scenes, and we were thinking of them not in a television show or in a movie like we were normally in. We were thinking of them in this animated kind of graphic novel way,” Matthew explained to Us. “For some reason we wound up on being a detective agency, because we all had had a little experience on the procedural drama TV shows like NCIS and NYPD Blue.”
Joey teased that the graphic novel is “slightly meta,” as the detectives — who are the Lawrence Brothers — start looking for “lost child stars from the ’90s and their paraphernalia or things that have gone missing.”
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He called the idea “a mashup of Hardy Boys meets Scooby-Doo set in this world,” noting an animated series is also on the table.
When the novel comes out, readers can expect to see Chilli as well as other ’90s stars like Boy Meets World’s Will Friedle and That’s So Raven’s Raven-Symoné.
“Some will be nemeses. Others will be protagonists. Then we’ll have heroes that join us, almost like The Avengers,” Joey explained. “We [are] going to have a team of experts that we call in, that have powers in their own right.”
The brothers launched a Kickstarter last month to raise funds for the graphic novel, which as of Friday, August 29, has met its goal. Fans can continue to learn more about the project online and support the graphic novel with various tiers that allow access to exclusives, collector’s cards and original art.
