Faith Evans and Stevie J, longtime friends, have married

Rhythm and Blues singer Faith Evans and music producer and reality-TV star Stevie J, longtime friends and collaborators, were married Tuesday in Las Vegas.

"Yes its true, I married them yesterday BIG TMZ news," officiant Joelle Righetti wrote on her Gypsy Mobile Minister branded Facebook page Wednesday linking to one of two TMZ.com stories that first reported the nuptials. The couple themselves obliquely confirmed the news on Twitter. "I love you Faith Renee Jordan," Grammy Award-winning producer Stevie J, 46, born Steven Jordan, tweeted early Wednesday. " I love you back Steven Aaron Jordan," tweeted Evans, 45, who won a 1997 rap Grammy for "I'll Be Missing You" by Puff Daddy featuring Faith Evans & 112.

This is Evans' third marriage. She and rapper Christopher Wallace aka The Notorious B.I.G. married on Aug. 4, 1994, within days of meeting each other, and were separated at the time of his still-unsolved murder in March 1997. The couple had one son, actor Christopher Jordan (C.J.) Wallace, 21, most recently a star of the MTV series "Scream.” In 1998, Evans married record-company executive Todd Russaw. Their son Joshua was born in June 2008 and their son Ryder in March 2007. When Evans filed for divorce in May 2011, she and Russaw already had been separated since December 2005, according to her divorce petition.

Stevie J has not previously been married but has six children from various relationships: Stevie, Savannah, Sade, Eva, Dorian and the youngest, 18-month-old Bella. Her mother, Joseline Hernandez, starred with Stevie J in the VH1 reality series "Stevie J & Joseline Go Hollywood" and "Love & Hip Hop: Atlanta." Stevie J, who also has a grown adopted son, Angel Antonio Fernandez, headlines the family reality show "Leave It to Stevie," which concluded its second season in April. 

He and Evans have been friends and have worked together for decades. "I've known her for almost 25 years," Stevie J said on the WWPR-FM/Power 105.1 morning show "The Breakfast Club" in December 2016, adding that "as years progressed, we just began to hang out more, talk more." He called the relationship then "brand new," and said of the two being intimate for the first time, "I just feel that I shouldn't have crossed that that line, because once you cross that line, emotions really overwhelm, y'know what I'm saying? . . . Once you start dating your best friend, it's a little different."