Tyler Perry is pretty much one of the most famous men on the planet. Yet somehow, he still manages to keep his personal life pretty private, including his relationships.
But you know what they say about secrets – you can only keep them for so long, especially when it involves other people and a child. And one of Tyler’s biggest secrets involves both.
So, without wasting any time, let’s dive straight into the story behind Tyler’s secret relationship and son.
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There’s not much known about the number of partners Tyler has had over the years. The one relationship that everyone seems to be aware of is the one he had with Gelila Bekele.
Gelila and Tyler met at a Prince concert in 2007 when Gelila was 21 and Tyler 38. They struck up a relationship, albeit a platonic one, and kept in touch afterward.
According to them, it took two years for them to see each other as more than friends. That was when they started dating.
Tyler said that they were very, very, very in love. It was like a breath of fresh air, being with Gelila.
Their Relationship Quickly Fell Apart
Things between them continued to move smoothly. By the time 2014 rolled around, Gelila found out that she was pregnant with their first child, a son named Aman.
Unfortunately, not too long after the birth of Aman, their relationship started to fall apart, and they had to go their separate ways. They’ve been good co-parents to Aman ever since.
But get this – apparently, Tyler and Gelila’s relationship was actually a huge scam. Yes, you heard that right.
Apparently, Gelila was just with Tyler for show. She allegedly wanted to use him to boost her public image.
Not only was Gelila allegedly with Tyler because of his status, but she also had another boyfriend who she was secretly seeing at the same time. This guy was a man named Ronnie. Apparently, Ronnie and Gelila had been together for years, even before Tyler came into the picture.
Now, you might think that Gelila is the bad person here. But you’re going to want to think again once you hear the role Tyler had to play in all this.
Allegedly, he also knew that Gelila was in a happy relationship before she met him. And he still agreed to get into a relationship with her. He was supposedly even paying her to date him because he wanted to save face publicly.
At the time, there were a lot of rumors going around about Tyler’s real orientation. Though Tyler has repeatedly tried to let everyone know that he is straight, not many people believe him.
The Case Against Tyler’s Orientation
The evidence against him isn’t helping his case much, either. Back then, Tyler frequented gay clubs. And it didn’t just end with him visiting them if you know what I mean.
These rumors were shared by Walter Lee Hampton. Walter even said there were times when Tyler tried to pay him off, just so he would stop talking about him and his business. But Walter isn’t the type of person who will just shut up if you give him money, which is why the rest of us heard of this story, too.
Tyler wasn’t very happy about this. Just days after Walter dropped this bombshell, it was revealed that he somehow ended up with a wound that required 120 stitches to be sealed shut.
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There were a lot of theories about what happened to him. The biggest one was that Tyler had sent some people to teach Walter a lesson. Then, Walter came out to insist that a glass door had fallen on him and that Tyler had nothing to do with it.
But get this – after this incident, Walter never really spoke about Tyler and his alleged preferences ever again. So, was he actually being honest? It’s hard to say.
Tyler Kept His Promise to Gelila
Let’s get back to Tyler and Gelila. A few years into their supposed romance, Gelila started directing and producing her own movies. She slowly started making her own mark on the entertainment industry.
If you haven’t guessed it already, this was all thanks to Tyler. This was how he kept his part of the alleged deal he had made with her back in 2009.
Even now that they are no longer together, they still work together. In his 2023 release, Maxine’s Baby: The Tyler Perry Story, Gelila was the one in the director’s chair.
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But let’s get back to when they were still together. I guess you could say that Tyler and Gelila’s relationship wasn’t really fooling anyone anymore.
No matter how much they kept insisting that they were in love with each other, people still claimed that they were faking everything. Then, before we knew it, they announced that they were having a baby, just like that.
According to Tyler, this was a major shock for both of them. He found out about the pregnancy via Facetime after Gelila called him holding up a positive pregnancy test. In Tyler’s words, there was no other person on the planet that he would rather have a baby with because Gelila was such an amazing person.
Tyler Wants to Give Aman the World
This was how Tyler’s son Aman came into the picture. Tyler described Aman as his greatest joy. He also said that his son helped him heal his trauma.
It’s no secret that Tyler had a very difficult childhood, as he grew up in a harmful home. The trauma he suffered as a child was something he carried with him into adulthood. But when Aman came into the picture, he was finally ready to let everything go.
Unlike his father, Tyler is determined to be compassionate toward Aman. He recalled a time when Aman tried being rebellious at home, but he was quick to let him know that what he was doing was wrong.
He told his son that he and Gelila loved him very much and wouldn’t watch him turn into a bad kid. Somewhere along the line, Tyler got really emotional and had to tap out of the conversation after realizing that no one had ever spoken to him this kindly. If someone had, maybe things would have turned out differently for him.
Despite the fact that Tyler is more than ready to give Aman the whole world, he’s also learning to draw the line at certain things, especially when it comes to money.
According to Tyler, he has lots of friends with spoiled kids. The last thing he wants is for Aman to be a spoiled kid, too.
So, he’s very careful around spending when it comes to Aman. He wants to teach him the value of hard work.
Gelila Wanted Out
For a while, Tyler, Gelila, and Aman really seemed like the perfect family. It was a major shock when Tyler announced that he and Gelila were going their separate ways.
Even though it seemed like their relationship had simply run its course, there’s a theory that suggests otherwise. Allegedly, Gelila got tired of the whole act and wanted out.
Supposedly, if it was up to Tyler, it would have gone on for much longer. But since they already had a kid together, he didn’t get much of a say in it all. The two of them broke up, and that was that.
Since then, Tyler has been in a couple of relationships here and there, but nothing serious has ever come out of any of it. It makes you wonder why that is.
Maybe Tyler is just really private, and that’s why we haven’t heard about any of his potentially serious relationships. At the end of the day, this is his business, and if he wants to keep things private, that’s his right.
