Simone Smith found out she had cancer after bumping her knee on a trash can during a workout.
A routine moment that changed everything.
In 2004 she was diagnosed with a rare form of bone cancer. When she sat in the doctor's office, LL Cool J was right there beside her — and immediately asked the doctors if he could give her one of his own bones to help save her leg.
"He wanted to give his fibula bone because he felt that his fibula bone would be bigger and stronger," Simone recalled.
The surgery lasted 15 hours. The recovery took two and a half years — from a wheelchair to crutches, from crutches to a cane, until she finally learned to walk again.
Their youngest daughter Nina was 4 years old at the time.
"Ain't nobody going to raise these kids with him but me," Simone said. "So you wake up and you fight."
She fought. She won. Over 20 years cancer free.
They just celebrated 30 years of marriage.
"Marriage isn't for the weak. It's for the faithful." — Simone Smith
LL Cool J and Simone Smith. Still standing. Still together.
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📌 Sources: SurvivorNet · HotNewHipHop · BlackDoctor · Complex · ET Online
Being 43 is wild. People your age are living completely different lives.
Some are grandparents. Some are raising toddlers. Some are newly divorced. Some are newly engaged. Some haven’t slept in three years. Some are in St. Tropez posting Aperol spritzes from a yacht.
Some look 25.
Some look like they personally remember the invention of Tupperware.
Nobody got the same assignment.