Actors Boris Kodjoe and Nicole Ari Parker met and fell in love when they played lovers on the old Showtime series “Soul Food.”
Ten years and two kids later, they’re jumping feet-first into the talk-show shark tank with a new series premiering Monday at 11 a.m. on WNYW/Ch. 5.
“The Boris and Nicole Show” has as its first guests Alfonso Ribeiro, the new host of “America’s Funniest Home Videos,” and actress Serayah McNeill, co-star of the monster hit drama “Empire.” Kodjoe and Parker stopped by The Post to talk about their lives and their newest venture.
Your relationship was first created in a script, so how did you transition? Whose idea was it to take what was written on the page and make it a reality? Yours or his?
Nicole: I think it was God’s.
Boris: At first we were very hesitant because we were aware of the cliché [of actors falling in love] and we didn’t want to fall into that. We fought it until the whole crew begged us to finally get together.
Nicole: Go on a date.
Boris: There was no booty touching until Season 2. Off-camera.
Why did you get married in Germany?
Boris: We had planned a very elaborate version of our wedding in LA. But it became too outrageous.
Nicole: You invite 350 people. Everyone has a plus one.
Boris: I called my mother and I said, “I want to get married in my grandmother’s backyard.”
Nicole: I always wanted a fairy-tale wedding and where he’s from, it’s like a storybook. A mountain town in the Black Forest. I was waiting for Hansel and Gretel to come out. I had a horse and carriage. My dad gave me away. We got married in a 900-year-old church. The women from the Bavarian houses with the wooden shutters threw roses on us as we walked through the cobblestone streets. We had 85 guests. Perfection.
Was it your first marriage?
Nicole: No, I eloped with a boyfriend from The Bronx. Joey from The Bronx. Ten months later ...
What is your general outline for the new show?
Boris: We plan a sneak peek into our lives for the opening of the series. Six to seven segments. We conceptualized this show five years ago for radio. We have lives people can relate to. The homework and the kids [and] we have a special-needs child. We have a strong relationship with diversity and challenges just like any other so we wanted to bring that to the table.
What’s the most embarrassing question you’ve been asked on a talk show?
Boris: Bethenny Frankel asked me routinely what I do to Nicole in bed. That made me blush a little bit. Then, I told her.
Nicole: Once Wendy Williams asked me about this rumor [on her radio show] that Boris was sleeping with one of our friends, Gabrielle Union. It caught me off guard. I was not prepared.
Boris: But then ...
Nicole: Years later, [Boris] goes on [Wendy’s] show, and she asked him what’s the one thing that somebody said to you on a talk show that’s not true? And he said there was this one radio talk-show host that spread these awful rumors.
Boris: We should also add that when she did that to me on the radio show, I had her call Gabrielle. I put her on the defensive. And Gabrielle said, “Of course, we sleep together. Nicole, too. All three of us.”
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