During a 2017 interview with Access Hollywood‘s Mario Lopez, the longtime Law & Order: Special Victims Unit star and his wife, Coco Austin, told the story of how they first met in late 2001 during a music video shoot. After seeing her for the first time (Ice T professed the first thing he noticed about Austin was “her teeth”), the iconic rapper knew he needed to say the perfect thing to break — no pun not intended — the ice.

What Ice T told Austin in that moment changed his life, and during the interview, he recalled the exact words he used to pique her curiosity.

“In the words of Iceberg Slim, I struggled to remain calm,” he recalled. “So I kept it cool. I said, ‘Would you ever consider dating a gangster rapper?'”

“I didn’t know what a gangster rapper was,” Austin admitted. “…And I go, ‘Well, if he’s nice.'”

Ice T had the best response. “[Then] I go, ‘Well, baby, if you take the ‘N’ off ‘Nice,’ you get ‘Ice,'” he said.

The line worked, to say the least. In 2025, the happy couple finds themselves married for more than two decades. Ice T and Austin will celebrate their 24th anniversary in January 2026. The two also have a 10-year-old daughter, Chanel, who is quickly becoming a star in her own right. She has more than 450,000 followers on Instagram alone.

Ice T explains how a marriage is like casting for a movie

During a memorable 2023 interview with E! News, Ice T was asked about the secret to his marital success, and the star answered the question with a brilliant metaphor.

“Getting married is like casting for a movie — you gotta pick somebody who’s ready for all the scenes,” Ice T explained. “Now, the thing of it is there’s gonna be fun scenes, there’s gonna be sad scenes, there’s gonna be tough scenes, there’s gonna be fight scenes, there’s gonna be a lot of different scenes. And a lot of people don’t sign up for the whole movie, they just sign up for the good part, ya know?”