Nia Long is in a good place with ex-fiancé Ime Udoka when it comes to coparenting their 14-year-old son, Kez.
“I love my coparenting situation,” Long, 55, told Playboy in an interview published on Monday, April 13. “We have the best: we go on holidays, we go on vacation, sometimes we carve out space to go to dinner, and we had a really good time the other night, and then it’s like, ‘OK, bye. Have fun. Talk to you later.’”
The actress — who also shares son Massai II, 25, with ex Massai Z. Dorsey — added that there’s a “sense of community” in her coparenting dynamic.
“I can call them if [our sons] need something or they can call me, and there’s obviously boundaries there, but we can still be a family,” she said. “We can still be proud of the legacy that we’re creating in our careers separately. And it works. We make it work. Really, I make it work. I’m not giving anyone else the credit.”
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Long also said she had “beautiful relationships with both of [her] children’s fathers.”
“It didn’t work out. It doesn’t mean I don’t love ’em,” she continued. “It doesn’t mean we’re not cool. It doesn’t mean we’re not friends. It doesn’t mean that we still can’t have family time together. It only means that we don’t have to be romantically involved with each other, but we can still celebrate our children. … We are the designers. We are the architects. We are the ones who can visualize what we want to see for our children, and make them the priority.”
Long met Dorsey on the set of NBC’s Third Watch in 1999. The pair were engaged for 10 months before calling it quits in 2001. Prior to their split, Long and Dorsey welcomed Massai II in 2000.
“My #1. His birth was easy and quick,” Long recalled via Instagram on Mother’s Day in 2021. “He changed my life … now I’m Mommy … Praise God and my ancestors for allowing me this privilege.”
More than a decade after her split from Dorsey, Long began dating then–NBA player Udoke, 48, in 2010. The two welcomed Kez in November 2011 after doctors told Long that she may struggle to get pregnant again.
“I honestly asked God for this,” she told Ebony during the pregnancy.
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Long and Udoka got engaged in 2015 but later called it quits in 2022 after the athlete-turned-Boston Celtics head coach was revealed to be having an affair with a female staff member. Udoka was suspended for the 2022–23 season amid an investigation and ultimately was not reinstated in his position. He later apologized and became head coach of the Houston Rockets in 2023.
“I went home to be with my son, and that was what was most important to me, because he was not having an easy time,” Long told The Hollywood Reporter amid the affair news.
In August 2023, Long filed for legal and physical custody of Kez, claiming that Udoka “failed” to support their son. She was ultimately awarded sole physical custody with reasonable visitation for Udoka, while the pair continued to share joint legal custody.
