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This week in nostalgia history: Tupac Shakur and Keisha Morris’ short-lived marriage

WRITING: MUSKAN THIND
Welcome to this week in nostalgia, where we teach you the importance of a prenup. First up in the headlines, we have the short-lived marriage between rap legend Tupac Shakur and Keisha Morris. Then, we cover the fall-out of a Las Vegas wedding between Guns N’ Roses’ front man, Axl Rose, and actress, Erin Everly. Where would celebrities be without prenups?
Last week: The Real Slim Shady revolutionizes rap
Tupac Shakur and Keisha Morris’ tie the knot, April 29, 1995
Almost three decades since the fatal shooting of rap legend Tupac Shakur, many remain interested in every aspect of his life, especially his love interests. Keisha Morris is someone that, while mostly forgotten in the headlines, struck up a romance with the rapper a few years before his untimely death. The pair met at a nightclub in NYC in the summer of 1994. “We were dancing, and we spoke briefly. He was going through something legally at the time, and I told him to just be careful of the people he’s around and that I hope everything works out,” Keisha told XXL magazine in 2011.
On December 1, 1994, Shakur was convicted of first-degree sexual abuse for the rape of Ayanna Jackson, and sentenced to 18 months. While living out his prison sentence, the couple decided to tie the knot. Morris recalled Shakur’s reasoning saying, “[For him] it was more like, ‘I don’t want you saying you’re my girlfriend. I want people to take you seriously and let them know that you’re my wife.’”
On October 12, 1995 Shakur was released early from prison, after his record label arranged for the posting of his $1.4 million bond. After five months of being a free man, Shakur got his and Morris’ marriage annulled. “Things were getting very different once he got bail, and I felt like I wasn’t needed anymore,” Morris recalled about their breakup.
Morris and Shakur remained close friends regardless of their complicated history. In a 1997 interview Morris stated that, “Tupac was the type of person that if he was through with you, that was it, but that wasn’t the case with me.” Their closeness was evident as the two were together in New York the day before Shakur was killed in a drive-by shooting in Las Vegas.
Axl Rose & Erin Everly get married in Vegas, April 28, 1990
Guns N’ Roses frontman, Axl Rose, had a short-lived union with model, actress (and daughter of Don Everly) Erin Everly after she starred in the “Sweet Child O’ Mine” music video. Their relationship relationship came to a tipping point when the two got married at Cupid’s Inn Chapel in Las Vegas on April 28, 1990. 48 hours after the couple exchanged their vows, Everly requested an annulment, but the marriage would officially end just ten months later.
The world would later find out that Rose’s abuse was what put an end to their marriage, after Everly filed a lawsuit in March of 1994 where she claimed that he had subjected her to physical and emotional abuse, and that he had unpredictable rage. According to an AP News article, the lawsuit said “Erin Everly passed out and woke up in a hospital to learn she had been injected with heroin and cocaine and gone into cardiac arrest.” The lawsuit would later be settled outside of court.
The abusive nature of their relationship was evident amongst their friends and onlookers but made public display when Great White allegedly used a recording of Everly fending off punches from Axl on the Psycho City album. Everly may have not been the only survivor of Roses abuse. Supermodel Stephanie Seymour, Rose’s former flame, also sued him for being physically abusive towards her. This lawsuit came after the singer made abuse allegations, saying Seymour attacked him in 1992 at their home. Everly also suffered a miscarriage four months after the marriage according to Rocks Off Magazine, which might have also largely contributed to the end of their whirlwind marriage.
When talking about their relationship, Rose stated, “Erin and I treated each other like shit.” “Sometimes we treated each other great because the children in us were best friends. But then there were other times when we just fucked up each other’s lives completely.”