He was left heartbroken when his two and a half year marriage to Millie Mackintosh ended bitterly in 2016. But five years on and Professor Green has found love again and, having just become a father, says he’s the happiest he’s ever been.
The 37-year-old rapper – who welcomed a son with his actress girlfriend Karima McAdams last month– admits he is “on a mission to sort out his sh*t” now that he’s a dad. He revealed his baby boy, who they have named Slimane Ray, arrived two weeks early and prompted “scare after scare”.
Writing on Instagram, alongside a picture of his son gripping his finger, he wrote, “Privately we’ve endured what so many parents-to-be have, your journey to us wasn’t a straight line whatsoever, it was a roller coaster right up to your arrival. I didn’t allow myself to express my excitement as much as I’d have liked to, I wanted to freely shout about how excited I was about you joining us, but I was frightened. We had scare after scare during the worst of which, I said to your Mama, ‘if he does make it, he’s grounded’.”
Pro Green – real name Stephen Manderson – married Made In Chelsea star Millie, 31, in 2013 in a lavish star-studded wedding – but things turned sour and the pair were granted a quickie divorce two years later, with Millie citing “unreasonable behaviour”.
And Pro now says he believes his previous relationship with Millie – who now has a ten-month-old daughter, Sienna, with her former MIC co-star Hugo Taylor – taught him lessons that he’s taken forward into his new romances.
He says, “Millie and I must have been in love with each other, because there were things that we did for each other that you wouldn’t do if you weren’t. But [the relationship] took the focus away from all of my work and I really didn’t like that. It became a toxic relationship to be fair and it snowballed. When I look at it, I’ve had more functional relationships since and now I really am in the happiest place I’ve been in.”
Pro lives in London with his son and Karima, who he has been dating since 2019 after meeting through mutual friends, and says that he’s interested to see whether his son inherits his youthful looks. He says, “I think I’m quite fortunate as far as my genes go. I was actually asked for ID the other day. I mean, I did have a mask on… It always makes me laugh when people complain about getting older because the alternative is copping it and I’m actually happy to be alive, especially now that I’ve become a dad.”
The musician has previously made no secret of his battle with depression, as a result of the emotional trauma of being abandoned by both his parents not long after he was born. He was raised by his nan after his mum walked out on him and he has admitted that he suffered with anxiety and never felt safe as a child. In a previous interview, he said, “By the time I was one, I had already suffered abandonment and then came the chaos of growing up to learn that my situation wasn’t like everyone else’s.”
Check out: Made in Chelsea's most dramatic splits
Made in Chelsea most dramatic splits - slider
1 of 11Spencer Matthews and Caggie Dunlop
The OG tragic split, even featuring an IRL (well, scripted reality) leaving at the airport scene. Spencer and Caggie weren't officially a couple, with Spencer dating model Funda Önal, but the chemistry between them was undeniable and for a long time Spenny thought of her as the love of his life. Eventually, feeling played by Spencer stringing her along while refusing to dump Funda (we don't blame her, tbh) Caggie left to pursue a "music career" in New York, and Spencer, realising the error of his ways, rushed to catch her at the airport to win her back. He missed her. Talk about dramatic.
2 of 11Ollie Lock and Gabriella Ellis
Cast your minds back to the first series and you will remember that a long-locked Ollie Lock was in fact dating a woman - aspiring pop star Garbriella Ellis, no less. But the couple split because Ollie was confused about his sexuality, and he quickly went on his "first ever" date with a man, leaving Gabriella heartbroken. So heartbroken, in fact, that she wrote her next pop song, Fight, about him, and there were some bizarre scenes in series two when she cast an Ollie lookalike to play the role of the leading man (subtle, hun).
3 of 11Hugo Taylor and Millie Mackintosh
We all know how this turned out IN THE END, but cast your minds back to series one and you'll remember the OG Chelsea power couple met a very messy end when Millie found out that Hugo (best mate of slimy Spencer Matthews) had cheated on her with HER best friend, the unassuming Rosie Fortescue. Cue a VERY dramatic speech at a party where Millie outed their betrayal in front of all their friends, making for possibly one of the best MiC scenes to this day.
4 of 11Spencer Matthews and Louise Thompson
After Caggie, Spencer's next conquest (in fact there might have been a few in between, to be fair), was weepy Louise Thompson, who was regularly reduced to tears by his womanizing ways. For some reason she stayed with him through multiple infidelities (seriously, we don't get it?) but things eventually came to a head when Spence met Louise at a bridge by the Thames (a classic) and told her he couldn't respect her when she "allowed" him to cheat on her.
5 of 11Binky Felstead and Alex Mytton
We were all rooting for Binky and new boy Alex Mytton when he showed up in series five, but it quickly became apparent he was one of the 'bois' by how well he got along with resident villains Spencer and Jamie Laing. They were a cute couple for a while, but Binky eventually split with Alex after learning he'd cheated on her on a night out with Spencer. She later found out the night in question had actually been an ORGY, which made things ten times worse. Poor Binks.
6 of 11Sam Thompson and Tiffany Watson
Ah, young love's dream. Except, not really, because a freshly de-cherried (presumably) Sam Thompson simply could not keep it in his pants during his two year relationship with Tiffany Watson. The couple eventually split during tearful scenes in Croatia, with Tiffany quitting the show shortly after. However, after Sam returned in 2019 with his Love Island girlfriend Zara McDermott in tow there were some seriously tense scenes where Sam very much gave the impression he wasn't over his first love.
7 of 11Louise Thompson and Alik Alfus
This one ruined us. Sure, New Yorker Alik was a bit of a bumbling idiot, and moving to the UK and asking Louise to marry him was A TAD overkill, but the scenes where Louise decided she couldn't go through with it and gave the ring back were peak heartbreak. There was later talk that their split had something to do with fellow American cast member Stephanie Pratt, but she hit back with a tweet saying, "Uhhh no she was shagging her trainer since March." She's now engaged (or is she?) to said trainer, Ryan Libbey.
8 of 11Jamie Laing and Frankie Gaff
We hate to say it, but Chelsea OG Jamie Laing just doesn't seem like he deserves a girlfriend. Not that Frankie Gaff was our fave, but is there a single partner Jamie hasn't done the dirty on? His relationship with Frankie was particularly eye-roll, but Frankie gave as good as she got when she went after Jamie's boi Alex Mytton and allegedly hooked up with TOWIE's Dan Edgar. They eventually split after one too many tearful confrontations at the dinner table with friends, and Frankie quit shortly afterward.
9 of 11Liv Bentley and Digby Edgley
After meeting on the set of one of 'photographer' Liv's nude shoots, it was love at first sight for these two and they managed a pretty normal relationship for a good few series. But things started getting rocky in series 18 with Digby increasingly frustrated by Liv's social life and Liv feeling stifled. At the end of the series after some major on-ing and an off-ing, Digby left for South Africa for work for three months, but then Liv went on Celebs Go Dating and the former couple shared some cut throat digs on Insta.
10 of 11Maeva D'Ascanio and Miles Nazaire
Let's face it - the golden era of MiC ended when the last remaining connections to the OG cast faded from the show (excluding Jamie Laing, obv), and we've been less invested in their relationships since then. But a special mention goes to Maeva D'Ascanio and Miles Nazaire. As each others' first loves in their native France, Maeva followed Miles to London where she joined the MiC cast and after a full series of heartbreak, the couple agreed to move on. We're sure Miles didn't have his best mate James Taylor in mind for Maeva's next squeeze, though. Awks.
11 of 11Sam Thompson and Zara McDermott
After meeting on the celeb circuit, Sam brought Love Islander Zara onto MiC with him (despite her being very much not from Chelsea) in 2019 as he returned from a break from filming. Cue VERY awkward exchanges with his ex, Tiffany, who also picked that series to return. In September 2020 allegations of Zara cheating on Sam during her stint on The X Factor came to light (oh how the tables have turned, hey Sam?) and their dramz split is set to play out on the upcoming series.
Tragically, his dad took his own life in 2008 when he was 25, and his nan later revealed his uncle had also taken his own life. Pro’s experiences prompted him to front his own BBC documentary called Suicide And Me in 2015 – something he says he hopes will help others. He says, “I’ve been talking about my feelings since the loss of my father and that did a hell of a lot of work for removing the taboo and stigma surrounding mental health. It’s bittersweet, because I had to go through my stuff in order to do that, but that’s just the way things are.”
In lockdown, the rapper – who smoked his first joint aged 11, began dealing the drug at 16 and smoked daily until he was 24 – cleaned up his act even further and has now cut out booze to stop the feelings of self-loathing.
Now that he’s become a dad, Pro says, “I am on a personal mission to sort my s**t out. I try to stay on top of stuff and a lot of people like to decompress by having a drink, but if I wake up with a hangover then I’m not going to get anything done and then things become more unmanageable and then that leads to anxiety and stress.
“The self-loathing isn’t that healthy, either. So now I do it far less – if at all. It’s all about picking your battles, being focused, having a clear-out and staying on top of things as much as possible. Whenever I can, I turn off my phone to escape. I have got responsibilities and I like to walk my dogs, but I lead a very mundane, day-to-day life. For me, it’s getting out of bed every day and getting on with it and that is commendable.”
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With new music and TV projects in the pipeline, Pro is excited about his latest venture with Tideway, the company financing and building the 25km tunnel under London’s river that will prevent the tens of millions of tonnes of pollution that currently pollute the River Thames every year. Born in Hackney, east London, Pro adds that he’s proud of his home town’s project. He says, “I grew up in east London and I spent two years of my adult life living on Bermondsey Street and walking my dogs up and down the River Thames, not really realising the impact that our way of life was having on it. But this project is really going to make London so much cleaner.”
How I deal with stress
Cooking: “It has played a huge part in my life and I find it pretty cathartic. I spent the first part of lockdown in Morocco cooking and eating the most amazing food and, when I returned home, I teamed up with my friend, the chef Gizzi Erskine, for ‘Giz & Green’s Monday Night Fakeaway’, where we recreated our favourite takeaway recipes at a pop-up restaurant in London.”
Therapy: “The only way to ever learn to become more mentally resilient is to access therapy when you’re not at a point of crisis. So my advice to anyone would be to consider therapy, whether you think you need it or not. It’s a brilliant way of training the mind and helps you cope with whatever you encounter.”
Step back from bad news: “I can’t watch rolling news any more because it’s just too depressing. I am worried about COVID-19 but I couldn’t tell you if I’ve had it. So many people have been asymptomatic and I could have been one of them. I make sure that I wear a mask at all times, so I do take it very seriously, But I don’t watch the news every day.”
Watch his virtual tour underground on Instagram @tidewaylondon