This Woman Married A Real-Life Prince She Met In A Nightclub
In my 30-something years of life, I have met a lot of interesting men in the club.
I've met doctors, hot Australian special forces troops, and even a guy still rocking a jheri curl - all gold everything, and diamond grills. But in all my club travels I have never met a prince of any kind - not a man named Prince, nor a real life prince. In fact, when it comes to men at the club, most of us usually just meet a headache.
But, for Ariana Austin, a Washington DC philanthropist, the club was the jumping off place of her real-life fairytale. Only this fairytale was straight out of Eddie Murphy’s Coming To America. Twelve years ago, one fateful night, Ariana met Joel Makonnen at a Washington DC-area club called Pearl.
When Prince Yoel approached his future wife, he introduced himself as "Joel." He told Ariana that she and her friend, Jami Ramberan, looked like a Bombay Sapphire ad. Not a very princely pick-up line, but he knew what he wanted and made it clear. "You're going to be my girlfriend," he said to her later that night.
Along the way the truth of their lineages came out. Joel was actually Prince Yoel, the 35-year-old great-grandson of Haile Selassie who was the last emperor of Ethiopia. Ariana, was no stranger to stateliness either. She was the granddaughter of the lord of Georgetown (the capital city of Guyana).
Ariana soon fell for Prince Yoel, and the couple spent their courtship keeping busy. They wrote on their wedding website,
From the streets of Adams Morgan to boulevards in Paris, from Howard to Harvard, holidays in Nice and Addis, we talked history and culture and law. We’ve always believed that when it came to our love — it was written — and we’re thrilled to experience the next chapter unfold.
Ariana told The New York Times,
“I think we both had this feeling that this was our destiny...But I felt like I had things that I had to do.”
The ceremony took place at the Debre Genet Medhane Alem Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church in Temple Hills, Md and was complete with royal capes and crowns. As expected, the reception was just as lit. Complete with a photo booth, a candy table and plenty of Bob Marley and Marvin Gaye.
For those of us who side-eye our way through the club and assume every man within sight is an emotionally unavailable f-boy, here is a case study for the ages. Despite the setting (and his lackluster opening remarks), the man Ariana met at Pearl that evening in DC ended up being her actual prince-charming.
I can only imagine how many frogs this real-life Princess had to kiss before meeting her future spouse, but let the record show, that love - even the Disney princess kind of love - can find you anywhere.
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ItGirl 100 Honors Black Women Who Create Culture & Put On For Their Cities
As they say, create the change you want to see in this world, besties. That’s why xoNecole linked up with Hyundai for the inaugural ItGirl 100 List, a celebration of 100 Genzennial women who aren’t afraid to pull up their own seats to the table. Across regions and industries, these women embody the essence of discovering self-value through purpose, honey! They're fierce, they’re ultra-creative, and we know they make their cities proud.
VIEW THE FULL ITGIRL 100 LIST HERE.
Don’t forget to also check out the ItGirl Directory, featuring 50 Black-woman-owned marketing and branding agencies, photographers and videographers, publicists, and more.
THE ITGIRL MEMO
I. An ItGirl puts on for her city and masters her self-worth through purpose.
II. An ItGirl celebrates all the things that make her unique.
III. An ItGirl empowers others to become the best versions of themselves.
IV. An ItGirl leads by example, inspiring others through her actions and integrity.
V. An ItGirl paves the way for authenticity and diversity in all aspects of life.
VI. An ItGirl uses the power of her voice to advocate for positive change in the world.
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Megan Thee Stallion Shares Her Transformative Approach To Health And Wellness
Megan Thee Stallion is back and better than ever — both physically and mentally.
ForWomen’s Health May/June 2024 cover, the 29-year-old rapper bared all, opening up about her healing journey following the aftermath of the July 2020 shooting incident by rapper Tory Lanez.
“A lot of people didn’t treat me like I was human for a long time,” she told the publication. “I feel like everybody was always used to me being the fun and happy party girl. I watched people build me up, tear me down, and be confused about their expectations of me.”
She continued, “As a Black woman, as a darker Black woman, I also feel like people expect me to take the punches, take the beating, take the lashings, and handle it with grace. But I’m human.”
While the “Savage” artist exudes confidence through her stage presence and boisterous lyrics, behind the scenes, Megan was experiencing a silent battle with her mental health. “Before I went onstage, I would be crying half the time because I didn’t want to [perform], but I also didn’t want to upset my fans,” she says.
With pressures from the outside world piling up, Megan experienced “dark times,” that caused her to isolate from the public eye.
“I didn’t want to get [out] from under the covers,” she recalls. “I stayed in my room. I would not turn the lights on. I had blackout curtains. I didn’t want to see the sun. I knew I wasn’t myself. It took me a while to acknowledge that I was depressed. But once I started talking to a therapist, I was able to be truthful with myself.”
The “Wanna Be” rapper also details her current workout slip and diet that work hand in hand, giving her the mental clarity and stamina to perform at her highest level. For four to five days a week, Megan is locked in with one of her two trainers, Emory “Joc” Bernard and Tim Boutte, doing a variety of workouts like Pilates, running up and down sand hills at the beach, or hitting the StairMaster or elliptical for upwards of 40 minutes.
Best known for her “Megan knees,” leg day is a must — with hip thrusts, goblet squats, leg extensions, and “stallion kicks,” being included in her circuits.
With a combination of therapy, stepping away from imbalanced relationships, and daily movement, the Houston Hottie has since been able to reconnect with herself on a deeper level; putting her happiness before the opinions of others. “Working on myself made me get into working out because I needed to focus my energy somewhere else,” she shares. “I used working out to escape and to get happy.”
“I’m in a space where I feel good mentally, so I want to look as good as I feel.”
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