Ice Spice went from a Bronx college student freestyling over beats to one of the biggest names in rap, practically overnight. And since the moment “Munch” went viral, the internet has been equally obsessed with two things: her music and her love life.
Ice Spice, born Isis Naija Gaston on January 1, 2000, has kept her personal life deliberately locked down from the start.
No soft launches, no couple selfies flooding her grid, no podcast confessionals. And yet, the story of who she has dated, who she has been linked to, and what was allegedly happening behind the scenes is one of the most layered timelines in recent pop culture history.
From a college campus producer who may have been there from the very beginning, to a Stranger Things actor, to a Central Cee situation that blew up publicly, to an NFL star she confirmed and then quietly walked away from, here is the complete Ice Spice boyfriend and dating history, told in full.
Where It All Began: RiotUSA
Before the fame, before the deals, before Taylor Swift was calling her a collaborator, there was Riot.
Ice Spice met producer RiotUSA, real name Ephrem Louis Lopez Jr., in 2021 at the State University of New York at Purchase, where both were studying communications. They had mutual friends, and Riot would send her beats after hearing her freestyle. He encouraged her to take rapping seriously, and what started as casual creative sessions quickly became something more structured and more personal.
He produced her debut song “Bully Freestyle” in March 2021, and then her breakout hit “Munch (Feelin’ U)” in August 2022. By that point, they were inseparable professionally. But according to people close to the situation, they were also inseparable personally.
In April 2024, former friend Baby Storme went public on X, claiming that Riot had been Ice Spice’s boyfriend since 2019, calling him “the real mastermind behind her career” and alleging she had cheated on him with rapper Lil Tjay, even rapping about it on their song together.
Ice Spice never officially confirmed the relationship. But she did give one clue. In February 2024, a fan posted a screenshot of a DM they had sent Riot on Instagram. Ice Spice replied publicly: “He doesn’t like boys.” Celebrity blogger KenBarbie immediately pointed out that this was effectively a confirmation, tweeting that she was “more surprised that y’all haven’t figured out that’s her man yet.”
Whether or not they were ever officially a couple, Riot was clearly the most constant presence in her life through her entire rise to fame.
Caleb McLaughlin: The Stranger Things Moment
In September 2022, Ice Spice sparked romance rumours after she and Stranger Things actor Caleb McLaughlin arrived together at Cardi B and Offset’s Fashion Night Out event in New York. An insider told MediaTakeOut that the two had been seeing each other for a few weeks and were “really into each other.”
Neither Ice Spice nor McLaughlin ever publicly confirmed or denied the rumours. They followed each other on Instagram. A couple of public sightings. And then, nothing. The chapter closed as quietly as it opened.
Central Cee: The Collab That Became a Controversy
This is the one that made headlines, broke a heart publicly, and ended up involving an entire music video.
In July 2024, Ice Spice was spotted shopping and riding in Central Cee’s Lamborghini across London, sparking immediate speculation about a romantic connection. They had already collaborated musically. Central Cee had described Ice Spice as “cool, humble, down to earth,” and she had said they had become good friends since he hopped on the “Munch” remix.
Then their song “Did It First” dropped as part of Ice Spice’s debut album Y2K!, and the music video was visibly intimate. The same week, Central Cee joined her onstage at Wireless Festival in London. Madeline Argy, Central Cee’s on-off girlfriend, publicly posted and then deleted a screenshot of him commenting “Trouble” on one of Ice Spice’s Instagram photos.
Ice Spice later shut down any suggestion of a romance directly. She told Rolling Stone that she and Central Cee were nothing more than friends, adding that they had known each other since “Munch” came out and describing them as “just twins.”
Sauce Gardner: The NFL Era
Ice Spice and New York Jets cornerback Sauce Gardner, real name Ahmad Gardner, were first spotted together publicly in March 2025, and she made the relationship official with a since-archived Instagram mirror selfie in April.
When asked by TMZ about the romance, Gardner kept it characteristically understated. “We’re cool,” he said. “Two young individuals. She’s from New York, and I play in New York. She’s talented, really talented at what she does. Two people who get hated on that’s really good at what we do, so we’ve got a lot in common.”
Gardner broke the record for the highest-paid cornerback in NFL history with a contract worth $120 million, making this pairing one of the most high-profile athlete-to-artist match-ups of 2025.
It did not last. Ice Spice confirmed on the “Baby, This Is Keke Palmer” podcast in September 2025 that she and Gardner had broken up, saying: “It was fun. It was cute. We’re still friends. We were just dating.”
Diamant Blazi: The Lunch That Launched a Thousand Theories
Just before the Sauce Gardner confirmation ended things officially, another name entered the picture.
In August 2025, Ice Spice was photographed leaving West Hollywood hot spot Cecconi’s with French Elite basketball player and TikTok star Diamant Blazi. The two were spotted holding hands at one point during their outing. Diamant was 20 at the time, with over five million TikTok followers and a projected NBA draft eligibility date of 2027.
A source close to the situation told TMZ that Ice and Diamant were “just enjoying time together,” without clarifying whether it was friendship or something more romantic. No relationship was ever officially confirmed between the two.
Where Things Stand Now
In November 2025, Ice Spice was linked to Brooklyn Nets forward Michael Porter Jr. after the athlete posted a photo that appeared to show her in the background, and she was also spotted at his game against the Boston Celtics. Sources described them as close at a New York nightclub, though again, nothing was officially confirmed.
The pattern throughout Ice Spice’s dating history is remarkably consistent. She keeps things close, drops almost no confirmation herself, and lets the paparazzi photos and the occasional archived Instagram post do the talking. In an interview with the LA Times, she explained her philosophy directly: she does not want to disclose who she is dating because she wants fans to “keep their focus on what I’m here for, which is music.”
For someone born on the first day of a new year, she has spent every year since making sure the music always comes first. Everything else is just a sighting.
