The Kodjoe family: Nicole & Boris talk about their wedding being first-time parents their careers

Jet, Sept 19, 2005 by Aldore D. Collier

After a fantasy wedding, Boris Kodjoe and wife Nicole Parker recently joined the ranks of high-profile couples juggling very public careers and parenthood.

The two married last spring and are the parents of 6-month-old Sophie Teinaaki Lee. Her middle name is Ghanaian for first-born daughter, Kodjoe said. His mother is German and his father is from Ghana. He pointed out that his middle name Tey-natey means first-born son.

They met and began dating while working on the acclaimed cable series "Soul Food." They switched the wedding locale from the East Coast to his childhood home in a small German village.

"We did want to do it here, but it turned into a 350-person, $250,000 event," Parker explained. "We were like, 'Why don't we just keep it small, simple and like the fantasy I had of having it in a garden with the sky overhead, flowers and friends. So, I ended up having my dream. There were about 100 people. We got married in a 900-year-old church where Boris' parents got married."

Then, she said, the couple, accompanied by all the townspeople, walked from the church to his grandmother's home. "Everything was beautiful and I was in a horse-drawn carriage with my dad."

Now, with the wedding a wonderful memory, all their attention is focused on Sophie, their first child.

"She has turned our lives upside down for the better," Kodjoe said. "She is really amazing."

Parker is equally complimentary.

"I'm so happy all the time. When I fall down in my bed, I just say, 'Thank you, God. She's so beautiful. My husband is so beautiful and I'm so happy. I had to get used to not having a single moment to myself. Being an actress, it's a lot about yourself. A lot of time now, things as simple as getting hair done or shaving my legs--all the beauty regimen goes out the window. My focus is on her. Things like a bubble bath are a real luxury now. I appreciate the simple things in life."

To help out, the two have a nanny and Parker's family. But, the two of them do a huge amount of cleaning, feeding and playing with Sophie.

Because they dated for a couple of years before they married, the two said they have a solid foundation and don't mind temporarily putting the bulk of their emotional energy into their daughter.

"Our relationship has entered a new phase," she said. "It's like, 'Hello honey' then kiss and not see each other the rest of the day. Either I've been holding the baby or he's been. Clearly, we've never done this and we're improvising as we go along. I don't let exhaustion be a factor. The fact that I have a bigger booty than I had before doesn't upset me because I look at it in terms of a whole life and a small slice of it is going by so fast."

Kodjoe quickly chimed in that his wife's butt is back to its normal, attractive level.

He recently went to Atlanta to shoot the film version of Tyler Perry's Madea's Family Reunion. Fortunately, he was able to have his two special ladies with him for at least a month. He also has The Gospel coming out in early October. In that film, he plays a man who has lost his faith and struggles to regain it.

"It was a very challenging role with me growing up in Germany. I had to study and find out about gospel and slavery times. It's deep."

Nicole said that motherhood has brought some bizarre career offerings.

"The weirdest thing has happened. I've gotten more offers now that I'm not pregnant. That's the funny thing. Pregnancy is harder than being the actual mom. Once you have the baby, you have all this energy and passion for life."

Most of the roles, she said, have been to play police detectives and lawyers. "Of course, there are lawyer roles," she said. "Lots of attorney roles." She played a successful Chicago attorney in "Soul Food."

While not having a problem with those kinds of roles, Parker said she just wants to make certain that the roles are challenging and not obsessed with violence.

"I don't want too much violence or blood and guts and then have to come home to my baby."

She jokingly pointed out there's enough violence with the way Boris likes to play horsey with the baby. "She always spits up. I think it's the favorite daddy game across the world and the food always comes up. And he keeps doing it."

The two starred in last season's "Second Time Around," a sitcom that had them cast as a couple that divorced but remarried. Reviews were positive for the show, but the network didn't give it a full season.

Kodjoe is pragmatic about it. "I loved that show. We had a great team assembled. The ratings were good, but we didn't have any support in terms of marketing. We had the third-highest ratings on the network, but it still didn't last. You have to ask yourself, 'What's going on?' Networks have their own agenda."

He shrugged it off because he figures opportunities are growing for the two of them as well as other Black actors. "It's not only because of 'Soul Food,' but because of people like Tyler Perry. They (powers-that-be) are realizing now that there's an audience out there that's been underserved and underestimated. There are people out there who want to see shows that have nothing to do with killing each other or stereotypical stuff."