Eddie Murphy has certainly had a successful career, with the star making moves in Hollywood for decades since finding fame on Saturday Night Live.
His latest movie, Coming 2 America, a sequel to his 1988 classic Coming to America, is released on Amazon Prime today (March 5).
And while the 59-year-old has had a colourful career, with iconic roles such as Mushu in Disney’s Mulan and Donkey in the Shrek franchise, his personal life has been just as interesting.
From his 10 children, A-list romances and age-gap relationships, Daily Star is taking a peek inside Eddie’s family life as he returns to screens.
Whitney Houston romance
Eddie Murphy denied there had been any romantic relationship with Whitney Houston (Image: Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images)
Eddie Murphy was romantically linked to Whitney Houston in the mid-1980s – but there was no confirmation or denial of the rumours until after the singer’s death in 2012.
The duo were pictured together at showbiz events and Whitney’s mentor Clive Davis appeared to confirm the romance when he wrote in his 2013 memoir The Soundtrack of My Life that the duo dated “until she married Bobby Brown”.
Whitney’s friends have claimed she had romantic feelings for Eddie (Image: NY Daily News via Getty Images)
Whitney’s friend Robyn Crawford alluded to romantic feelings in her book A Song for You: My Life With Whitney Houston.
She claimed that Whitney had invited Eddie over for dinner and pulled out all the stops, and was disappointed when he never turned up.
Robyn also claimed that Eddie told Whitney “she was making a mistake” before her 1992 wedding to Bobby Brown.
However shortly after Whitney’s February 2012 death, Eddie denied any sort of romance.
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The actor told Extra: “I was never dating Whitney. She was a friend of mine. I may have gone to dinner with her a few times, but it was never like we were dating – we were never boyfriend and girlfriend.”
He went on: “We were very friendly acquaintances.
“She was a beautiful person. I hear a lot of people talking about her sense of humour, and she really did have a great sense of humour, she was a funny girl.”
Whitney’s mum Cissy said there had been no romance in her 2013 book, Remembering Whitney, too, backing up Eddie’s claims that they had just been friends.
Spice Girls lover
Eddie Murphy dated Spice Girl Mel B in 2006 (Image: Daily Mirror)
Eddie Murphy had a whirlwind and relationship with Spice Girls superstar Melanie Brown – aka Mel B aka Scary Spice.
The former couple met in 2006 after his divorce from Nicole Mitchell Murphy and, in her 2018 memoir Brutally Honest, Mel claimed it was “love at first sight”.
While she turned down his offer of moving her into his mansion, Eddie gave Mel a credit card to use – though she returned it a few weeks later.
Mel described their first time in the sack as “like poetry”, saying they waited six weeks to have sex after they started seeing each other.
Eddie went on to ask Mel’s dad for her hand in marriage, but their romance started to sour after she fell pregnant with their daughter Angel.
They eventually split up, and it’s reported that things are now amicable and Eddie pays more than £20,000-a-month to Mel for health insurance and education costs for Angel.
Paternity riddle
Eddie claimed he didn’t know he was the father of Angel until a paternity test confirmed it (Image: FilmMagic)
While Eddie and Mel may have had a passionate and romantic relationship, and be amicable nowadays, the same can’t be said for when Mel was pregnant with Angel, now 13.
Back in December 2006, Eddie made it clear he wasn’t certain that the baby Mel was carrying was his.
He said at the time: “I don’t know whose child that is until it comes out and has a blood test. You shouldn’t jump to conclusions.”
Mel told Piers Morgan on Life Stories that he “apologises to this day” and “wishes he never said it”, saying that the pregnancy had been planned.
“We were madly in love and it just went wrong,” she said, “dramatically went wrong.”
The little girl was born on Eddie’s 46th birthday, April 3, 2007.
A DNA test confirmed that Eddie was Angel’s father in June of the same year, but it’s reported that the father and daughter did not spend much time together until recently.
Father-of-10
As well as Angel, Eddie has nine other children from five different relationships.
His eldest son Eric, 31, was from his relationship with ex-girlfriend Paulette McNeely, while his 30-year-old son Christian’s mother is Tamara Hood.
Five more of his children – Bria, 31, Shayne Audra, 26, Zola Ivy, 21, Bella Zahra, 19, and Miles Mitchell, 28 – are from his marriage to Nicole Mitchell Murphy.
Of course, he shares 13-year-old Angel with Mel B.
And his two youngest children – Izzy, four, and two-year-old Max – are with his current partner, fiancée Paige Butcher.
Back in 2018, Eddie posed for some festive family photos with his entire brood, as well as Paige, her mother, and his mother.
Prostitute shocker
Eddie was stopped by the police with a prostitute but it was determined that there had been no illegal activity (Image: NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images)
On May 2, 1997 – four years into his marriage with Nicole Mitchell Murphy – Eddie was stopped by the police in the early hours of the morning after picking up a prostitute in West Hollywood.
Eddie was not arrested or charged after he was stopped by police two miles away from where he picked up the prostitute, who was called or Shalimar.
He was questioned by police, who determined that there had been no illegal activity.
At the time, Eddie’s rep told CNN: “She asked him for a ride, and Eddie did so, like he had helped people in the past.”
While Eddie reportedly said: “I was trying to be a Good Samaritan, and this is what happens.”
Shalimar – who was described as a “known transsexual prostitute” at the time – was arrested for an outstanding prostitution warrant.
Sadly, a year later, Shalimar – who went on to become an exotic dominatrix dancer – died after an accidental fall, aged just 21.
Age-gap relationship
Eddie is engaged to actress and model Paige Butcher, who is 18 years his junior (Image: FilmMagic)
Eddie is now in a relationship with Australian model and actress Paige Butcher, with the couple going strong since 2012.
Paige, mother to two of Eddie’s children, is 41, making her 18 years younger than her man.
Attempting to keep some of their life together private, Paige delete her social media after they started dating.
She said in 2013: “I’m in a relationship with a celebrity, so I felt like there’s already enough of me out there.
Eddie and Paige have been dating since 2012 (Image: Getty Images)
“I felt like I was giving out too much information. I was giving people too much access. I like to keep as much private as possible now.”
In 2016 they welcomed their first child together, a daughter called Izzy Oona.
And they had their son, Max Charles, in 2018.
That same year, the long-term couple announced they were engaged – though it appears they haven’t yet taken the next step and walked down the aisle.
Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
