Snoop Dogg On Love, Loyalty, And 27 Years Of Marriage: “She’s The Yin To My Yang”
When Snoop Dogg first crossed paths with Shante Broadus at Long Beach’s Polytechnic High School in the ’80s, he knew he had found someone special. Little did the teenage rapper know that this high school sweetheart would become his life partner, the yin to his yang, and the backbone of his success.
“She understands me,” Snoop, now 52, says of Shante during a conversation with PEOPLE. The couple has been married for 27 years, a rare feat in the world of entertainment.
“She’s a great mother, a tremendous grandmother, an excellent wife, and a great friend. She knows how to push all of my buttons to make me act a motherf—ing fool or to make me act cool, and I love it.”
But the road to marital bliss hasn’t always been smooth. Snoop and Shante tied the knot in 1997, but their relationship hit a rough patch in 2004, leading to a brief separation. However, love won out, and they renewed their vows four years later, solidifying their commitment to each other and their family.
“In relationships like this, it’s a rocky road in the beginning because success is new to both,” Snoop explains. Early on, he struggled with the balance between protecting Shante from the pressures of his rising fame and including her in his journey.
“Some things I want you to be a part of, some things I don’t want you to be a part of to protect you,” he recalls thinking. But over time, he realized that Shante should have been by his side all along.
“You learn as time goes by, ‘OK, you are in control. You run this, you run that, because I make bad decisions.’ The good to my bad is her,” he added.
As much as Shante has been his anchor, Snoop takes pride in his role as a devoted husband. “I’m a loving, caring, providing husband. My wife ain’t never worked a day in her life, and that’s what I love—that I’m in a position where you don’t have to work. I am the work, and you are my backbone.”
Through the years, Shante has grown alongside Snoop, learning to navigate the complexities of his career while giving him the space to thrive. “Over the years she’s grown with me to know what I do and how I do it and to give me the space to do it,” he said, adding, “The things that she helped me with are patience, understanding what family is, making time for family, and not making excuses.”
Snoop’s hard-won wisdom is something he wants to share with others. “How do I stay married for so long? I’ve got a strong wife with a strong backbone and a good heart—she’s loving and she’s caring, and we are meant to be together,” he says.
For Snoop, marriage is a lifelong commitment. “When we said we’d marry, we married ’til death do us part. Ain’t that what it say? Not ’til arguments do us part or fighting or finances, but ’til death do us part.”
As for his secret to a lasting marriage? Snoop keeps it simple: “Find out what your companion loves the most and concentrate on doing it the most.”
“That’s real love,” he noted.
