For months people have been speculating about Taye Diggs and Apryl Jones’ relationship. Are they dating? Are they just friends? What is tea? Now, it is safe to say that the two are in love. In a recent Instagram Reel, The Best Man actor was all smiles as he raved about Apryl.
“As an adult, there are times in life where you can’t believe what you’re blessed with,” he began. Some of those things include the birth of his son and having a successful career “after coming from nothing.” Then he proceeded to talk about the mother of two.
“The fact that this woman is in love with me, like I don’t under — I can’t — that’s how I know,” he said.
“Praise you Lord Jesus, Buddha, or universe, ’cause somehow she’s … she’s nice, and she’s with me.” The reality TV star responded with “I love you. You’re so sweet.”
Taye Diggs on Instagram: "Thank you, GOD."
Taye added, “For all you people out there who don’t think there’s a God or no higher being and no higher force, f— y’all, and I know there is, ’cause someone’s looking out after me.”
Taye and Apryl first sparked dating rumors after they were spotted attending a party together in Dec. 2021. From there, they began sharing cute and corny TikToks and Instagram Reels with their followers, which furthered the dating rumors.
Earlier this summer, the actor played coy about his relationship status with Apryl during an interview with Fox 5 News. "We’re cool, we’re enjoying ourselves," he said. “We’re having a lot of fun. These are crazy times, so we’re just trying to have as much fun as we can, and that kind of helps us out. We are always looking at opportunities to laugh at ourselves.”
Here are some of their cutest moments together.
Sing-a-long Moments
The couple has shared several videos of them singing together but this video was the one that jumped it off. In the video, Taye and Apryl appear to be on a flight together and Apryl is teaching the All American star the lyrics to Destiny’s Child's “Say My Name.”
Red Carpet Romance
Leon Bennett/Getty Images
In February 2022, the former Love and Hip Hop: Hollywood star accompanied Taye on the red carpet for the private screening of his movie Incarnation. Apryl shared an image of them on her Instagram page and captioned it, “I LAUGH MY ASS OFF WITH YOU!” The father of one responded in the comments and wrote, “Who? Me? I’m the lucky one.”
Dancing Fever
If there’s one thing we’ve learned about Taye and Apryl so far is that they love to have fun no matter where they are. Taye has uploaded many videos of the couple dancing the night away such as the one above.
Missing Each Other
Taye was missing his boo and decided to sing through it. On May 27, the NAACP Image Award winner shared a video singing a song he made up in Apryl’s absence. He titled it, “Already miss u song.”
Twinning
Taye appears to be looking to add 'stylist' to his already extensive resume. The heartthrob decided to dress Apryl in an outfit that he purchased from CVS. While she was showing off her new outfit, the veteran actor joined in on the fun with an outfit similar to hers.
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Featured image by Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic
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While an evolution is a natural progression that happens as businesses grow, a rebrand is a total change. Lola tells xoNecole, "A total rebrand is necessary when a business’s current reputation/what it’s known for is at odds with the business’s vision or direction.
"For example, if you’ve fundamentally changed what your product is and does, it’s likely that your brand is out of alignment with the business. Or, if you find your company is developing a reputation that doesn’t serve it, it might be time to pump the brakes and figure out what needs to change.
She continues, "Sometimes you’ll see companies (especially startups) announce a name change that comes with updated messaging, visuals, etc. That usually means their vision has changed or expanded, and their previous branding was too narrow/couldn’t encompass everything they planned to do."
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The Brand Doula was born in 2019, and its focus is on putting "the experiences, goals, and needs of women of color founders first," as well as brands with "culture-shifting missions."
According to Lola, culture-shifting is "the act of influencing dominant behavior, beliefs, or experiences in a community or group (ideally, for the better)."
"At The Brand Doula, we work with companies and leaders that set out to challenge the status quo in their industries and communities. They’re here to make an impact that sends ripples across the market," she says.
"We help the problem solvers of the world — the ones who aren't satisfied with 'this is how it's always been' and instead ask 'how could this be better?' Our clients build for impact, reimagining tools, systems, and ways of living to move cultures forward."
The Brand Doula has worked with many brands, including Too Collective, to assist with their collaboration with Selena Gomez's Rare Beauty and Balanced Black Girl for a "refresh," aka rebrand. For businesses looking to rebrand, Lola shares four essential steps.
1. Do an audit of your current brand experience — what’s still relevant and what needs to change? Reflect on why you’re doing the rebrand in the first place and what success would look like after relaunching.
2. Tackle the overall strategy first — before you start redesigning logos and websites, align on a new vision for your brand. How do you want your company to be positioned moving forward? Has your audience changed at all? Will your company have a fresh personality and voice?
3. Bring your audience along the journey — there’s no need to move in secret. Inviting your current audience into the journey can actually help them feel more connected to and invested in your story, enough to stick around as changes are being made.
4. Keep business moving — one of my biggest pet peeves is when companies take down their websites as soon as they have the idea to rebrand, then have a Coming Soon page up for months! You lose a lot of momentum and interest by doing that. If you’re still in business and generating income, continue to operate while you work on your rebrand behind the scenes. You don’t want to cut existing customers off out of the blue, and you also don’t want so much downtime that folks forget your business exists or start looking for other solutions.
While determining whether the rebrand was successful may take a few months, Lola says a clear sign that it is unsuccessful is negative feedback from your target audience. "Customers are typically more vocal about what they don’t like more than what they do like," she says.
But some good signs to look out for are improvements in engagement with your marketing, positive reviews, press and increase in retention, and overall feeling aligned with the new branding.
For more information about Lola and The Brand Doula, visit her website, thebranddoula.com.
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In a xoNecole exclusive, the mom of two opened up about many things, including starting her wellness journey at 13 years old. However, a near-death experience during a procedure at 20 made her start taking her health more seriously.
“There's so many different levels, and now, I'm in a space of just integrating all of this good stuff that I've learned just about just being human, you know?” Dreka tells us. “So it's also fun because it's like a journey of self-discovery and self-mastery. That's what I call it. So it's never-ending.”
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If you follow Dreka, then you’re familiar with her holistic lifestyle, as she’s no stranger to promoting wellness, self-care, and holistic living. She even lives part-time on a Mississippi farm, not far from her grandmother and great-grandmother’s farm, where she spent some summers as a child.
While her grandmother and great-grandmother have passed on, Dreka reflects on that time in her life and how having a farm as an adult is her getting back to her roots. “So the farm was purchased back in 2017, and it was like, ah, that'll just be a place where we go when we're not touring or whatever,” she said.
“But covid hit, and I was there, and I was on the land, and I just started remembering back to going to my grandmother's during the summertime and freaking picking peas and going and eating mulberries off the freaking tree in the bushes.
“And she literally had cotton plants. I know some people feel weird about picking cotton and stuff. She had cotton plants and I would go and pick cotton out of her garden. And she had chickens, and I literally just broke down in tears one day when I was on the farm just doing all the things, and I'm like, ‘Oh my gosh. I'm literally getting back to my roots.”
I literally just broke down in tears one day when I was on the farm just doing all the things, and I'm like, ‘Oh my gosh. I'm literally getting back to my roots.
You can catch glimpses of Dreka’s farm life on Instagram, which shows her picking fruit and vegetables and loving on her animals like her camel Eessa. Her passion for growing and cultivating led her to try and grow all of her ingredients for her wellness brand, Dreka Wellness. However, she quickly realized that she might be biting off more than she could chew. But that didn’t stop her from fulfilling her vision.
Watch below as Dreka talks more about her business, her wellness tips, breaking toxic cycles, becoming a doula, and more.
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