Vanilla Ice recalls turning down Madonna's marriage proposal and how her Sex book broke them up
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From 1991 to 1992, Vanilla Ice (né Robert Van Winkle) and Madonna (née Madonna) took part in a fast and furious relationship that, if the pop diva had her way, might have ended in a stroll down the aisle.
But the publication of Madonna's notorious Sex book silenced those wedding bells and put the couple on ice, ice, baby. Sitting down with the Just Jenny by Jenny Hutt podcast, the Ice man reflected on his short, but passionate affair with the queen of pop.
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The pair met in '91, when Ice was riding high on the success of his debut album, To the Extreme, which had become the fastest selling hip hop album of all time, thanks in large part to the infectious lead single, "Ice, Ice Baby," and Madonna was riding high on being Madonna.
The Material Girl, then 33, went to see Ice, then 24, perform and was reportedly "dancing her ass off" in the crowd with everybody else. Madonna then kickball-changed her way backstage and was giving Ice the "sexy eyes." To be fair, Madonna doesn't really have any other eyes, but back to the story. Ice assumed he must be mistaken since he thought Madonna was too old to be interested in him — and if anything, she's known for her subtlety — and that was that.
Except it wasn't. The two met up again and this time there was no confusion. A record exec had confirmed that the "Like a Virgin" singer was not playing coy and that she was, in fact, into him. After a dinner at a steakhouse, they started dating. And things were nice for a while. So nice that Ice says Madonna even popped the question.
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"Things were going so crazy and fast, man. I was just like, 'What? I thought the guy was supposed to do that,'" he said. "'What do you mean? Wait a minute, this is too fast. I'm just getting started here and I'm way too young for this.'"
However, once Madonna published Sex, her 1992 erotic coffee table book featuring risqué photos of celebs like Naomi Campbell, Isabella Rossellini, Big Daddy Kane, and Vanilla Ice himself, the rapper turned Ninja Turtle hype-man ended their affair. According to Ice, Madonna included him in the book without his consent or knowledge.
"I was dating her during that time, so I had no idea about a sex book, I'm doing my own thing," Ice recalled. "I said, 'How could you do that to me? And why did you do that to me?' I could've sued her. I didn't want to. I was like, 'I don't need that controversy. Let's just let it go and you go your way, I go mine.'"
Though they ended on bitter terms, Ice has nothing but good things to say about his ex, calling her a "legend" and "one of the greatest ever." And it was perhaps for the best that the two never married since Madonna was apparently still in love with her ex, Sean Penn.
"I felt that she still loved him," Ice said in a 2001 biography of the singer. "In fact, I know she did because she told me."
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