Raven-Symoné Made Her Dates Sign NDAs 'Before Naughty Time'
When Raven-Symoné was born on Dec. 10, 1985, in Atlanta, Georgia, it was only a matter of time before the world knew her name. After working as a child model, Raven-Symoné was just 3 years old when she broke into television playing Olivia on the hit '80s sitcom "The Cosby Show." From then on, she became the poster child for some of the most iconic TV and film characters of the '90s and '00s. "Kim Possible," "Doctor Dolittle," "The Cheetah Girls," and, of course, "That's So Raven" are just a few of her most famous projects.
If you were alive and conscious before 2007, there's a good chance you can sing the theme song to one of Raven-Symoné's shows — that's how much of a household name she was. And although Raven-Symoné reached colossal fame, she managed to keep her romantic life relatively private for a long time. It turns out that one of the keys to maintaining this privacy was using a non-disclosure agreement, commonly called an NDA.
Raven-Symoné used NDAs when she was dating
When you're a Hollywood star, you gain a lot of freedoms and privileges that many people couldn't imagine. However, when you and your co-workers depend on your image for a living, you also face a lot of restrictions and invasions of privacy. What people are saying about you can make or break a project. Raven-Symoné opened up about how this experience affected her dating life on the podcast "Howie Mandel Does Stuff." She explained that she always kept a strong guard before she could get to know someone well.
Raven-Symoné told Howie Mandel that she had to use non-disclosure agreements to protect her privacy. She said, "All of my relationships, especially — obviously — when I started dating, I had to get people to sign NDAs ... It took me a while to wrap my head around it because it's very impersonal, but someone in our position needs to do that." Mandel dug deeper, asking when exactly Raven-Symoné would whip out the contract, considering it's not the most romantic or suave move. Raven-Symoné replied euphemistically, "before the naughty times come."
Why Raven-Symoné kept her dating life private
For much of her career, Raven-Symoné kept her love life to herself. This is partly because Raven-Symoné's sexuality remained out of public knowledge. In an interview with "Them," she shared that it was not something that she was ready for the world to know about for a long time. She was in a relationship with a man for a while, but not because she necessarily wanted to be. "I would tell [him] on a regular basis, if we get married, you know I gotta have a girlfriend, right?" she said, laughing. It wasn't until 2013 that she acknowledged in a tweet that she was gay. "I can finally get married! Yay government! So proud of you," she said when same-sex marriage was federally recognized.
Just two years later, she was dating Miranda Pearman-Maday, who is now Raven-Symoné's wife. Because of this and the NDAs that her partners had to sign, there is little information available about her dating history. Even when Symoné had met Pearman-Maday, her first instinct was to be suspicious and protective of her personal information. On the podcast "Howie Mandel Does Stuff," Raven-Symoné told Howie Mandel that when Pearman-Maday began asking her more personal questions, Raven-Symoné's response was, "Why? What are you trying to know, are you going to write a book about me later?" Between signing an NDA and exchanging marriage vows, Perman-Maday will likely be the last person to spill Raven-Symoné's private information.