Chance the Rapper says his marriage was already on the rocks when his viral Jamaica Carnival video hit the internet.
The Chicago rapper shared that he and his ex-wife, Kirsten Corley, had been separated when he went to Jamaica for carnival in April 2023. If you can recall, Chance the Rapper received a lot of flak from his fans after a video showed him doing a raunchy dance with another woman in the streets of Kingston.
Speaking with Rory & Mal on their podcast, the “No Problem” rapper says the video was not the catalyst for his divorce. “I think I was tripping because nobody knew that me and my wife were separated,” he said. “So I had her looking dumb. Don’t have your lady looking dumb, whether she your BM, your wife, your girlfriend, your best friend. Don’t let your lady look stupid if you with them.”
“It’s Carnival,” he continues, adding that everyone was blowing up his phone when the video went viral. “That’s the thing, it’s like, everybody was lit. That was probably the cleanest wine I caught. Y’all are lucky they censored the other wines I was catching. Friends, family, team, press, everybody hit my line like, ‘Yo, this sh*t going viral.'”
Chance the Rapper and Kirsten Corley announced their divorce in April 2024, a full year after the video came out. She has never spoken on the video or their divorce, which at the time left some fans to speculate that the video was the primary cause of their split.
Chance is currently promoting his upcoming new album, Star Line, his first full-length album since 2019’s The Big Day. The project is set for release on August 15, 2025.
Chance was just enjoying his Birthday at a Carnival ??? pic.twitter.com/QRX8OCcQHC
— New Rory & MAL (@newrorynmal) August 14, 2025
In the same interview with Rory & Mal, the rapper admitted that his divorce has been tough to deal with, but is grateful to still call his ex-wife and their two children his family.
“I ain’t gonna act like it’s not tough,” he said. “I ain’t gonna act like it’s perfect and we shook hands and dipped. It’s weird. I think the toughness is that it’s a reality. I think that’s the toughest part.”
Chance The Rapper and Korley met each other when they were children before getting married in 2019.