Eddie Murphy and Tracey Edmonds Split 2 Weeks After "Symbolic" Wedding Ceremony and Chose to Remain "Friends" Instead

Some celebrities have the most complicated personal lives even when they are incredible performers. They might know how to make people laugh but they could be low on the joy quotient in their own lives, due to various circumstances. However, being a famous celebrity doesn't give anyone the license to be a bad partner or parent. All relationships need to be nurtured and there is no short cut to that. For a couple, especially, it's crucial to spend time together and get to know each other, so that there are no issues when you take a serious step towards formalizing your relationship. However, there are times when people just go ahead at full speed without considering all aspects.

Actor Eddie Murphy, 59, has been in many relationships during his lifetime. He is currently engaged to Australian model Paige Butcher, with whom he has two children. Butcher is 19 years his junior but that didn't stop their love from blossoming. The 41-year-old model has been with the comedian since 2012. There isn't a lot known about her but it is known that she is the mother of Murphy's ninth and tenth children.

Murphy, a father-of-10, has five kids with ex-wife Nicole, one with former Spice Girl Mel B, one with Paulette McNeely, and another with Tamara Hood, apart from Butcher's kids, as per PEOPLE. He has been engaged multiple times as well and while Nicole, who was married to him for 12 years, may be the only ex-wife officially, the Nutty Professor star had married one more time.

After his break-up with Mel B, he started dating producer Tracey Edmonds. Edmonds was previously married to singer-songwriter Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds. They have two kids together. The Beverly Hills Cop actor and the producer started dating the fall of 2006 and were engaged the next July. He had had five kids by then with another on the way, for whom he denied paternity. It was later proved that Mel B's child was indeed his.

In 2008, Murphy and Edmonds got married in a legally nonbinding ceremony on a private French Polynesian island on New Year’s Day, but they split up two weeks later, as per PEOPLE. They had issued a statement together after returning to Los Angeles separately, as per Access Online.

"After much consideration and discussion, we have jointly decided that we will forego having a legal ceremony as it is not necessary to define our relationship further. While the recent symbolic union in Bora Bora was representative of our deep love, friendship, and respect that we have for one another on a spiritual level, we have decided to remain friends," they said.

People at their $500,000 multiday wedding, which was attended by 25 friends and relatives, said that Murphy became standoffish right after the ceremony, as per PEOPLE. "He would go off to smoke with his buddies," said one person who was present there. Guests who had stayed on the island after the ceremony "could hear them yelling and her crying during the honeymoon evenings. It was pretty dramatic."

Sources told PEOPLE that Edmonds didn’t get along with Murphy’s mom Lillian Lynch and neither did she want to the Daddy Day Care star’s last name. "[Lillian] basically said, 'It’s me or her,' to Eddie," said a source. A friend of Edmonds added, "His mom never liked her or her mother, and she really went off on Tracey and Jackie. And Tracey was p—–. [Just before the wedding], there was a huge argument, and words were said and Eddie took his mom’s side."

This was shocking since Murphy had said, "I’m so happy, I’m over the moon" from their honeymoon. Previously, while he had only good things to say of her. Accepting his SAG award for his role in Dreamgirls, he thanked her for "fixing everything that was broken." He used to send her giant bouquets every day and bought "her serious jewelry—really big stuff from Cartier and Harry Winston."

But, their friends said that they were not really well-matched. "I think Tracey had a kind of fairy-tale attitude," her friend had said. "Sort of like a teenager." They had ignored the red flags in each other. Murphy wanted her to move into the home he shared with his mother and his friend singer Johnny Gill. "[Tracey] called it a 'family reunion' house because there were so many people living there," said a friend of Edmonds. "She was going to move into Eddie’s house, but she wanted everybody else out."

Edmonds went on to be in a relationship with NFL player Deion Sanders and they've been together since 2012.

References:

https://people.com/movies/eddie-murphy-love-life-timeline/

https://www.accessonline.com/articles/eddie-murphy-tracey-edmonds-split-62108

https://people.com/archive/eddies-wedding-disaster-vol-69-no-4/