Jussie Smollett Broadcasts His Engagement

Actor Jussie Smollett will likely be strolling down the aisle quickly. The previous Empire star shared the information of his engagement to actor Jabari Redd in an Instagram put up final Friday (June 20). The put up’s caption learn, “I’ll be spending my birthday with my Fiancé… He mentioned YES,” with a hoop emoji. The put up was a carousel of pictures from the second, starting with an image of Smollett kneeling by a restaurant and presenting a hoop to Redd. The next pictures captured Redd being overcome with emotion and saying sure as he and Smollett embraced, ending in an image of the engagement ring.

Smollett turned 43 on Saturday (June 21).

The couple has been courting since at the very least 2023, in accordance with stories, and have saved their relationship out of the general public’s eye till the announcement. They starred collectively as a married couple in The Misplaced Vacation, a drama launched in 2024, which starred Vivica A. Fox. It’s the second movie Smollett directed. The information was met with pleasure by his family and friends, with youthful sister and actress Jurnee Smollett sharing her congratulations on the Instagram put up. “Screaming with tears of pleasure! My complete coronary heart loves each of you @jussiesmollett. Welcome to the household @jabariredd,” she wrote paired with three coronary heart emojis.

Smollett’s information comes one month after his determination to settle a lawsuit filed in opposition to him in Chicago associated to an alleged incident in 2019 the place he claimed that he was attacked because the sufferer of a hate crime. The small print of the incident roused the suspicions of prosecutors, and he would undergo a courtroom trial and spend a quick time in jail earlier than being launched. Smollett agreed to pay $50,000 to Constructing Brighter Futures Heart for the Arts.

“Over six years in the past, after it was reported I had been jumped, Metropolis officers in Chicago got down to persuade the general public that I willfully set an assault in opposition to myself. This false narrative has left a stain on my character that won’t quickly disappear,” Smollett wrote on the time on Instagram. “The officers needed my cash and needed my confessions for one thing I didn’t do. Immediately it must be clear, they’ve acquired neither.”