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Inside Cardi B's Relationship With Stefon Diggs
Cardi B did plan on being the drama when she started watching her boyfriend Stefon Diggs play football.
"I be on the screen on Sunday every day cursing people out," she predicted on Today last September as the NFL season got underway. "Not yet, because I've been preparing for my album. But after this whole album thing, I'm going to every single game. Every single one of them."
The artist, born Belcalis Marlenis Almánzar, ultimately did not make a spectacle of herself at the New England Patriots games she attended after the release of Am I the Drama?, including their Jan. 25 win over the Denver Broncos at snowy Mile High Stadium that punched the resurgent team's ticket to Super Bowl LX.
But Cardi and Stefon's cozy post-game reunion marked one of only a few spotlit moments they've shared since she gave birth to their son on Nov. 4, her fourth child overall and his third. And since they didn't make that many public appearances before then, either, consider this the start of a new era for the couple.
Though whether Stefon will be able to make it to date night at the 2026 Grammys Feb. 1, where Cardi is nominated for Best Rap Performance for "Outside," remains to be seen.
Cardi's Best Rap Album triumph in 2019 for her debut LP, Invasion of Privacy, remains her only Grammy win to date, so hopes are high that the 33-year-old will be in the building at Los Angeles' Crypto.com Arena less than 24 hours after appearing as the musical guest on Saturday Night Live.
Lauren Leigh Bacho/Getty Images
But win or lose, it sounds as if she won't be missing the Super Bowl—taking place Feb. 8 at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif.—for the world.
She charmed the Patriots faithful ahead of the AFC Championship Game, reminding fans during an Instagram Live session to not assume the team would cruise to victory, just because the Broncos' starting quarterback Bo Nix was injured. Rather, they needed to take it "one game at a time."
"I don't underestimate nobody!" she screamed. "You gotta be humble, God loves humble. I've gotta be humble!"
So, consider Cardi—who's also a longtime Boston Red Sox fan, despite hailing from NYC—already wise in the ways of pre-game superstition. After they won, however, she didn't need to contain her enthusiasm.
Matthew Stockman/Getty Images
"We're goin' to the Super Bowl! The Patriots goin' to the Super Bowl! New England is going to the Super Bowl!" she raved to a sideline reporter after the Patriots won. "Boston, let's take it there!"
She also told NFL Network while down on the field that she was "very happy" for Stefon, who suffered a season-ending ACL tear in October 2024 while playing for the Houston Texans. "I'm very proud of him. You know, he just came back from an ACL, and me seeing the progress, the process of him, the first time he started running back. And now, joining the Patriots and actually going to the Super Bowl, I'm just very excited for him, very excited for the whole team—they been workin' their butts out."
She credited "discipline and work" for Stefon's comeback, explaining, "It's not like, oh, you wake up and you're great. It's discipline, it's going to bed early, it's wakin' up early, it's not missing one day of work, nothing."
Maddie Meyer/Getty Images
So, for anyone concerned that she and Stefon aren't spending enough time together, it sounds as though Cardi's had an up close and personal look at his journey, which took the 31-year-old to the Patriots in 2025 after several years apiece with the Minnesota Vikings and Buffalo Bills, as well as one year in Houston.
After she posted photos of herself celebrating Christmas with her four kids—Kulture, 7, Wave, 4, and Blossom, 16 months, shared with soon-to-be-ex-husband Offset, plus her baby with Stefon, whose name they have not shared publicly—commenters were quick to wonder why she and the athlete weren't spending the holiday together.
“Y'all need to calm down,” Cardi said in a Dec. 29 video. “Is y'all cool? Y'all been dragging me for three or four days. Y'all become and y'all been a little bit too mean. I can't change s--t, I can't go back in time. I already had a baby.”
And Stefon, who also has two daughters from previous relationships, has his head in this game, too.
In a rare comment about his personal life, he told reporters Jan. 21 that Cardi has "been an amazing supporter to me, and the Patriots. You know, she wasn't a football girl before I converted her over, but I'm just thankful to have her in my corner. She's an amazing woman."
He added, "I just appreciate her. Hopefully I can build on that and, you know, I guess, watch that tree grow."
Meanwhile, Cardi isn't rushing into another binding union after filing for divorce from Offset, whose real name is Kiari Kendrell Cephus, for the second time in August 2024. But she's up for getting married again one day.
"I believe in love," she said on Today in September. "I'm like a hopeless romantic."
And she called her relationship with Stefon, which kicked off after they met through mutual friends, "sparkling" like "Fourth of July."
Once she saw him, "I thought he was cute," she recalled. "I was like, 'Oh, he gotta be mine.'"
He has since become hers, so check out their relationship timeline in photos:
Todd Owyoung/NBC via Getty Images; Adam Glanzman/Getty Images
The Beginning of Their Romance
While fans already knew Cardi B likes those Balenciagas (the ones that look like socks), they began wondering if she also liked Stefon Diggs in October 2024. The rapper and the New England Patriots wide receiver then fueled dating speculation after they were photographed together on Valentine's Day 2025.
Though Cardi hasn't revealed the exact Xs and Os of how she met Stefon, it was more or less her thinking, "Oh he's so handsome, what's his name?"
"I thought he was cute," she said on a September 2025 episode of Today, noting they connected through mutual friends. "I was like, 'Oh, he gotta be mine.'"
XNY/Star Max/GC Images; North Woods / BACKGRID
A Fashionable Night Out
While some would prefer to finesse rumors, the Grammy winner and the athlete weren't afraid to keep people talking when they stepped out for a 2025 Met Gala after-party in May.
Elsa/Getty Images
Confirming Their Relationship
Later that month, Cardi and Stefon confirmed they're a couple while attending an NBA Playoff game between the Celtics and the Knicks in New York.
"It’s tough hiding. It’s tough dating in your 30s, too, but I like him. I love him, today," the "Bodak Yellow" artist told Billboard in September 2025. "I was always scared of dating people [because] I’ve always been in a long relationship since I was like 21."
MEGA / BACKGRID
Vacation Time
Cardi and Stefon seemed to be living their best life while spending Memorial Day weekend on a yacht in Miami, Fla.
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Romantic Getaway
In June 2025, the "Money" star and the football player made some more moves, debuting their relationship on Instagram and then taking a trip to Paris.
TikTok / Cardi B
Luxurious Gifts
But fans began to wonder if Cardi and Stefon had already split after their Instagram post marking their hard launch was deleted in July 2025.
However, the musician assured followers things were Okurrr after she posted a video showcasing the Patek Philippe watch she got from Stefon.
"My boo boo got it for me at London Jewelers," she said in an August 2025 TikTok. "You know, I went to link up with him at London Jewelers and I thought he was buying himself a watch. And [he was] like, 'Surprise, a watch for you!' And [I was like], 'Ahhh! Thank you!'"
DUTCH/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images
Shutting Down Speculation
Weeks later, there was speculation that Cardi could be growing her family. But when the star—who also shares kids Kulture, Wave and Blossom with ex Offset—was asked about the paternity of her rumored little one, she slammed the question.
"You’re disrespectful. Don’t do that," she told the inquirer in September 2025 while exiting a courthouse in L.A., where she won her viral trial. "Do you see women asking those types of questions to me?...Why do you feel as a man you get to ask me those types of questions? Act like you have some manners. Your mama taught you: Respect women."
CBS News
A Baby on the Way
Later that month, Cardi confirmed she and Stefon are expecting a baby. While the child will be the couple's first together, the bundle of joy marks her fourth and his second overall (He is dad to daughter Nova from a previous relationship).
"Everybody kept telling me I should have fun, and we had a little bit of too fun and now I’m here," Cardi told CBS Mornings in September 2025, adding, "We’re very excited. We’re very happy."
And she had a message for all those who had been spreading pregnancy rumors.
"Now y’all can buy my album so I can buy Pampers and diapers and all that type of stuff," Cardi added, referencing her sophomore release Am I the Drama?. "I told ya. Now go support my album ‘cause I’m a mother of four now."
Vendetta dailly / BACKGRID
Cheering Each Other On
For Cardi, forming a new relationship with Stefon after her divorce from Offset required her to be "open and vulnerable."
"One time he just told me like, ‘Let me heal you,'" she continued on CBS Mornings. "'Give me a chance for me to heal you.'"
And while Stefon plays offense, he's quick to come to Cardi's defense. Like when he supported her ahead of her album release.
"When people just rip it apart, it just hurts you and it crush you," she added. "He’s like, ‘Girl, you better get it together.’ He makes me feel very confident. I feel like feeling safe is feeling confident. Feeling like you can do it, and it makes you feel like you can take over the world."
Of course, the support goes both ways as Cardi noted she's become a football fan.
"I be in the screen on Sunday, every day, cursing people out," she said on a September 2025 episode of Today. "'Pass the ball!'"
Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for The Met Museum/Vogue; Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic
Addressing Allegations
Shortly after Cardi announced her pregnancy, Stefon made headlines over a lawsuit model Aileen Lopera filed in December 2024 in which she accused him of fathering her baby girl born in April 2025, per court documents obtained by People. According to his response obtained by the outlet, Stefon has contested the allegation that he fathered the child and has requested genetic testing to determine paternity.
Cardi then appeared to address the drama on social media.
"Hello, Barbara. This is Shirley," she said in a September 2025, giving a nod to the lyrics of Shirley Brown’s song "Woman to Woman" in which a woman calls up her partner’s mistress. "That’s your baby daddy, b---h? That’s my baby daddy, too. Well what now? I don’t f--king know. We’ll figure it out b---h."
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