Media personality Rickey Smiley, 56, recently learned that he has more children than he thought. Smiley uncovered that he’s the father to five-year-old twin girls.
The discovery was joyous and brought light to the radio personality’s life.
“When I tell you that’s the first time I saw the sun again,” Smiley said in an interview on the Smitty and Dee Show podcast, “during that dark hour, the sun came back out.”
The dark hour the media personality is referring to is the death of his 32-year old son Brandon to a drug overdose in 2023. Smiley said it took around a year for the reality of Brandon’s passing to sink in and that’s when he learned he was the father to his twins.
“Right before the one-year anniversary of my son’s death I found out I have a 5-year-old, identical twin beautiful daughters,” Smiley said. The 56-year-old found out after his ex-girlfriend learned through court proceedings that Smiley, not another man, was the father of her girls.
Smiley continued, “We dated after that relationship ended and come to find out I have 5-year-old identical twin beautiful daughters that I am head over heels in love with,” he shared.
In terms of how the radio personality met his kids as their dad, he did it on their birthday. However, he has known them their entire lives. They often have playdates with his grandson Grayson, 8.
“On their fifth birthday, I went into their house as their father,” he said. The award-winning host didn’t go empty-handed–he brought flowers, balloons, and sent a cake.
Smiley also redecorated one of the rooms in his home and restored the sandbox and trampoline to accommodate his twins.
This revelation means Smiley is now a father of five. He also has four other living children: Malik Smiley, Aaaryn Smiley, and D’Essence Smiley. In addition to Grayson, the 56-year-old also has a granddaughter, Storm, who is fathered by his late son Brandon.
In March 2024, Smiley got vulnerable about how difficult losing his son was during an interview with PEOPLE magazine.
“I feel like I had died. It literally felt like a part of me died. It was depressing, anxiety, sadness. Nothing I ever felt before, and sometimes it makes you feel like you wished you were dead also because the pain is unbearable.”
