celebrity

LaKeith Stanfield Celebrates Engagement Amid ‘Secret’ Baby Claims

Photo: Johnny Nunez/WireImage

LaKeith Stanfield had quite an eventful end to 2022. First the actor announced his engagement to model Kasmere Trice, and then he made tabloid headlines after a woman claimed he fathered her child and lied to keep it a secret. After a few heated days of speculation and back-and-forth, the actor announced he’s ready to move on and focus on his career in an Instagram post celebrating the New Year.

Let’s start at the beginning. On Friday, Trice announced their engagement on Twitter, writing in part, “my baby made me mrs. Stanfield for my birthday!” Stanfield confirmed the news a day later with a post on his Instagram, showing the engaged couple posing in front of a Christmas tree, wearing New Year’s hats, with Trice flashing her ring to the camera. The happy news took a bit of a turn that same day, as artist Tylor Hurd posted an Instagram Reel featuring photos of her daughter and Stanfield with the caption, “Decided to leave being someone’s secret family in 2022 [heart emoji] meet Apollo Stanfield.”

“Thanks for respecting my not wanting to blast my child out to the internet. Very considerate of you,” Stanfield commented, suggesting he and Hurd had agreed to keep their child out of the spotlight. Hurd responded, accusing him of “saying she wasn’t your baby” and lying. “You value your privacy but your gf post everything y’all do,” she wrote. He denied her accusation, saying he “never once in life said she wasn’t my baby.” According to the Shade Room, Hurd also posted a series of since-deleted tweets accusing Stanfield of choosing to spend the holidays away from their daughter. “I can count on my hand how many times he’s been with my girl,” she wrote. After some accused her of being bitter and jealous of Stanfield’s engagement, Hurd responded on her Instagram Stories, writing in part, “What I’m upset about is that he’s made more time to spend with this woman than he’s spent with Apollo her whole life and has been actively ignoring me when I’m trying to figure things out for our child.”

After the story went viral, Hurd and Stanfield both deleted their Instagram comments, and Hurd ended up taking down her Reel entirely. But Stanfield, who also shares a child with his ex, Xosha Roquemore, appeared to address his tumultuous few days in an Instagram post on Monday. “Loved the holidays and spending time with family. Some really great moments with loved ones,” he wrote. “Beautiful time with my fiancé [sic] and the reinforcement of our bond in the midst of any kind of climate.” He went on to hint at the week’s drama, writing, “Love is a trip because at the same time as it can inspire really massive beautiful feelings of connectedness, it can also inspire pain and anger, and at the end of the day I think that’s part of what makes it so special.”

Trice also appeared to respond to Hurd’s claims — specifically that Stanfield did not spend Christmas with his daughter — tweeting that she had been “spending Christmas surrounded by beautiful babies and children.” (She did not specify what or whose children.) And on Monday, she took to her Instagram Stories to call Stanfield “the most loving dad I’ve ever seen.”

LaKeith Stanfield Celebrates Engagement Amid Family Drama