“In the pandemic, we lost a lot of people, but in my case, it helped a lot of instances in my life. We had brutally honest conversations.”

Ne-Yo ran into some issues with Smith about his new single, “What If,” which details past romance and how things could have turned out differently. 

The artist explained that the song’s lyrics didn’t go over well with his wife. “What If is a conversation starter; it’s about a relationship and what could have happened if you did what you were supposed to.”

“(It’s) a very dangerous song for a married man. My wife was like, ‘Is there something you want to tell me?’ (I said), ‘Babe, this is not about me; I write about other people’s situations too.’ “

Despite having some trouble in paradise, and previously announcing a divorce, the two eventually worked their problems out.

“We’re actually stronger now than we were before,” Ne-Yo added. “Now we feel like we can really talk to each other.”

“I don’t know when it happened, but we got to a place where we felt like we couldn’t just say it, you know. You’re feeling something – something’s going on, and you know something’s going on, but for whatever reason, you can’t just come out and say it. We got to that place, and that almost broke us.”

Ne-Yo and Smith got married in 2016 and share three kids, Shaffer Jr., Roman, and newborn Isabella.

The “Closer” also has a daughter Madilyn Grace Smith and Mason Evan Smith, from his previous marriage to Monyetta Shaw, who recently got engaged to Heath Carter. As previously reported, Ne-Yo took to social media and congratulated Shaw at the time of the announcement.