Alicia Keys on co-parenting with her husband's ex: "One big beautiful family"

Alicia Keys says she and her husband of eight years, Swizz Beatz, have a “beautiful partnership” in co-parenting with his former wife.

The rapper and record producer shares custody of his 11-year-old son with ex Mashonda Tifrere, a singer who was previously signed to his label.

Speaking to Good Morning America, Keys, 37, explains how she, Beatz and Tifrere are now raising Kasseem Dean Jr. together as “one big beautiful family”.

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Beatz, born Kasseem Dean, separated from Tifrere in 2008, two years after their son was born, and finalised their “painful” divorce in 2010 - the same year he remarried.

The pair weren’t on friendly terms after their breakup, which impacted their son and led him to have some issues at school. 

For Tifrere and Beatz, it was a “wakeup call” that prompted them to work on their relationship for the 11-year-old’s sake.

Along with Keys - who now has two children with Beatz - they embraced group therapy and mediation. The process of blending their two families took a couple of years to click.

“When we did, it was like turning the light on. We realised we could minimise the impact on our children by reducing the conflict we had with one another,” Tifrere explains to People.

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Keys describes the blending process as one of the things she’s most proud of, and says she and her husband’s ex wife have developed a warm relationship as a result.