Lil Wayne and Denise Bidot started dating in 2020 before Bidot confirmed their breakup in January 2023

PHOTO: MICHAEL TULLBERG/GETTY ; JAMIE MCCARTHY/GETTY

Lil Wayne and Denise Bidot have gone their separate ways.

The five-time Grammy winner made his relationship with the Good American model public in the summer of 2020, after calling off his engagement to model La’Tecia Thomas. He reportedly met Bidot the year before, and the two reconnected during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Wayne was previously married to his high school sweetheart, reality star Toya Johnson-Rushing, with whom he remains “very, very close.” They share daughter Reginae Carter, an ambassador for Rihanna’s Savage x Fenty lingerie line. He also shares son Dwayne III with broadcaster Sarah Vivan, son Cameron with actress Lauren London and son Neal with singer Nivea.

Wayne and Bidot quietly dated for a little over a year, sharing only a few sweet moments publicly. In September 2021, Bidot celebrated the rapper’s 39th 𝐛𝐢𝐫𝐭𝐡day with a post on Instagram. “Happy 𝐛𝐢𝐫𝐭𝐡day to my favorite human on this or any planet. You’ve been my teacher, friend, and the greatest love of my life,” she captioned a photo of the pair, per Complex.

However, in January 2022, Bidot opened up about her newfound singledom during an interview with Hola!, confirming her and Wayne’s breakup.

“Today I feel like a much more complete woman: I learned to love, not only another person as a couple, but the world, life, to value time, my heart has opened,” she told the outlet.

Here’s everything to know about Lil Wayne’s ex-girlfriend, Denise Bidot.

She is Puerto Rican and Kuwaiti

DENISE BIDOT INSTAGRAM

Born to a Puerto Rican mother and Kuwaiti father, Bidot is both Latina and Middle Eastern, according to a profile by The Fashion Spot.

She grew up in Miami before making the move to Hollywood at age 18 to try her hand at acting. As she told Cosmopolitan, however, getting her start in the industry wasn’t exactly easy.

“When I came on to the scene, people were like, ‘What do we do with you? Where does she go?’ ” she explained. “I feel like one of the few Latina girls doing it, and I’m proud of that, but I also want to be here for all women. I’m glad I can be a role model in the industry, because growing up, I didn’t really have that.”

She’s worked as a model, actress and makeup artist

JP YIM/GETTY

Bidot has been very candid about her serendipitous foray into modeling, explaining that she never dreamed of walking the runway. “Growing up, I always knew I wanted to be a part of the entertainment industry,” she told The Fashion Spot, “but because I wasn’t petite or tall, there was never a thought in my mind that I would become a model.”

When she moved to L.A. to become an actress and first started auditioning, she was constantly told to lose weight. She then decided to go to beauty school and got scouted while working as a makeup artist. “I thought it was a joke because I never even knew (the plus-size) industry existed,” she recalled to the outlet. “I thought to myself, ‘What? I can model at my size and people will accept that?’ ” She has since modeled for Kohl’s, Macy’s, Target, Levi’s, Forever21 and Khloe Kardashian’s Good American.

After becoming one of the first “plus-sized” models to walk at NYFW in 2014, Bidot told Cosmopolitan she doesn’t see the need for labels and hopes the fashion industry moves away from using the term.

“I’m just a woman,” she said. “I’m a curvy woman, and hopefully someday they do end up cutting out the word ‘plus-size.’ But for right now it’s nice to just have a section for us.”

Bidot reflected on her first NYFW catwalk on Instagram in January 2023. “TBT to this moment that changed my life forever,” she wrote, tagging the designer Chromat. “I will always be humbled at the fact that you believed in me enough to open this show and make history with you,” she continued, adding that although the fashion industry “has room to keep growing,” nothing makes her happier than “to see all the diversity on the runways these days.”

She promotes body positivity

DENISE BIDOT INSTAGRAM

In 2017, Bidot appeared in Sports Illustrated‘s Swimsuit issue, posing in an unretouched Lane Bryant ad.

“I was so excited to find out the image was released unretouched,” Bidot told PEOPLE about the campaign. “I am pretty unapologetic about my body.”

Bidot often shares unretouched images of herself on Instagram as well. She captioned one bikini shot, “It’s 2022, we out here… stretch marks, cellulite, rolls, who cares?💚💫.” She also launched the “There Is No Wrong Way to Be a Woman” campaign in 2016, describing the movement as a “home of self-love and confidence (and) a safe place for women from all stages in life to come together without judgment.”

She is a mom

DENISE BIDOT INSTAGRAM

Bidot has a daughter from a previous relationship, and the mother-daughter duo are incredibly close. Joselyn Adams, who graduated high school in June 2022, is her mother’s biggest cheerleader, and the two have even walked the runway together, per Romper.

The proud mom strives to pass down all the lessons she’s learned about self-love and body positivity to her daughter.

“Nowhere have I felt so much awesome responsibility than when teaching my daughter that there is no wrong way to be herself — to be a young woman, whatever her size,” Bidot wrote in an essay for Refinery29. “I know how early these ideas are instilled in each new generation, and it’s my job to be that voice; to tell her that she is beautiful and that she can achieve whatever she sets her mind to.”

She and Lil Wayne made their relationship Instagram official in June 2020

Denise Bidot and Lil’ Wayne. DENISE BIDOT/INSTAGRAM

After reportedly meeting in 2019 and reconnecting during the first COVID-19 pandemic, Wayne and Bidot made their romance official in June 2020, just a month after the rapper’s split from Thomas.

The model posted three photos of the couple on her Instagram Story, including one where Wayne is giving her a kiss and has his arm wrapped around her. She wrote above the photos, “Somehow in the middle of all the madness, something special happened. Us.”

After a summer of love, the two were still going strong by the time Wayne’s 38th 𝐛𝐢𝐫𝐭𝐡day came around that September. “Happy Birthday to the man who managed to steal my heart during a pandemic,” Bidot wrote in a sweet 𝐛𝐢𝐫𝐭𝐡day tribute showing them posing for a selfie on a private jet.

“These past 5 months have been filled with more love, passion and laughter than I ever thought possible,” she continued, calling the rapper her best friend, lover and “way more than a dream come true.” She added, “Here’s to celebrating you today and every day 𝑏𝑎𝑏𝑦!! I LOVE YOU 🖤🥳🎂.”

Lil Wayne wrote sweet love songs about her

PRINCE WILLIAMS/WIREIMAGE

In April 2021, Wayne teased a clip from an unreleased love song on his Instagram, which Bidot reposted, adding a sweet and short caption, “@liltunechi I love you boo 🖤😗.”

In the video, the artist can be heard singing, “Okay, you wanna talk about / Let’s write our names in the sand / Draw a heart around it, yeah,” while his then-girlfriend outlined a heart in the sand with her hands.

She and Lil Wayne sparked marriage rumors

Rumors began swirling in April 2021 that Wayne and Bidot had gotten married when the rapper shared a cryptic tweet alluding to the beginning of a new chapter.

“Happiest man alive! Today is the beginning of our forever. Forever?? Forever, ever?? FOREVER EVER!!!!! The Carters,” the “Lollipop” rapper wrote.

During an Instagram Live with Nicki Minaj a few months later, Wayne clarified that the tweet was referring to his sons’ rap group and that he and Bidot had not wed.

“I’m so glad you asked me that. I did not get married,” he told Minaj. He added, jokingly, “I said ‘The Carters,’ and girl, that’s my damn sons, that’s my sons’ little name of their little group.”

She and Lil Wayne dated on-and-off

In January 2021, fans speculated that the two had called it quits after nine months of dating when they unfollowed each other on social media and Bidot shared a cryptic Instagram post hinting at a breakup. “Pretty disappointing when you defend someone throughout everything and they turn out being just as s—ty as everyone said they were,” she wrote. It was rumored that she was referring to Wayne’s endorsement of then-President Donald Trump.

But by April 2021, the model appeared in a sweet video Wayne shared on Instagram, confirming that they were back together. A few months later, Bidot had nothing but praise for her boyfriend on his 39th 𝐛𝐢𝐫𝐭𝐡day. “You’ve been my teacher, friend, and the greatest love of my life. Cheers to you @liltunechi. You truly are the goat,” she wrote to Wayne on Instagram.

She confirmed her and Lil Wayne’s breakup in January 2022

By January 2022, Bidot and Wayne had broken up for good, with the model confirming the split during an interview with Hola! published on Jan. 24. While she didn’t speak about her rapper ex directly, she did discuss what she learned from the relationship and the next phase of her life.

“I’m happy, nervous and proud to say I’m starting over in 2022. I’m returning to New York with my daughter and single,” she said.

She continued, “One of the most important things I learned in this relationship is that I enjoy being with someone, I really liked being in love. I’d spent my daughter’s entire life without being in a relationship. Thirteen years! I’d been single her whole life. Now I understand that I’d love to fall in love again, be everything for someone and have that someone be everything for me.”