5 Things about Eve’s Fiance, Maximillion Cooper
Dec 31, 2013 2:59pm
Imeh Akpanudosen/Getty Images
Hip hop artist Eve confirmed reports that she is engaged to her long time boyfriend, British designer Maximillion Cooper.
Earlier today the rapper-actress who was born Eve Jeffers tweeted, “Thanku 2 everybody 4 your congratulations on our engagement! We wanted to celebrate with our family and friends 1st b4 announcing,” along with two heart emoticons.
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Cooper also confirmed the news on his Twitter feed. “Yes it’s official…I asked the question…and she said YES! WAHOOO! we’re getting married!” he wrote, alongside a photo of them leaning against a race car.
mrgumball3000/Instagram
Eve’s rep told E! online that Cooper, 41, popped the question to Eve on Christmas Day.
Before the news broke, Eve, 35, offered a first glimpse of her huge diamond ring in a family photo she posted on Instagram Monday.
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therealeve/Instgram
“#familytime!!!! Me and my mom and my lil brother Farrod just got to the English country side. Feel so#blessed to be with my family and sharing my life here,” she wrote. “I pray that you bring 2014 in with people you #love”
It appears Eve will be doing just that with Cooper. Here’s five things to know about the love of her life.
1. He’s a Designer
Born in Staffordshire, England, Cooper studied fashion at London’s prestigious Central St. Martins College of Art and Design. As the founder and brains behind the Gumball 3000 brand, he splits his time between New York and London. Creativity runs in his family. He’s the son of an abstract artist and musician.
2. He’s a Former Race Car Driver
In 1999, he launched the Gumball 3000, an annual British 3,000-mile international motor rally which takes place on public roads, with a different route each year. For the Gumball 3000′s 15th anniversary, drivers traversed 13 countries and 3000 miles in just seven days. Putting his love of racing together with his fashion skills, Cooper built Gumball from an underground rally into a global lifestyle brand.
3. He Met Eve at the Gumball 3000
Eve met Cooper at his annual racing event when she participated for the first time four years ago. She’s been back every year since and has been officially dubbed the “First Lady of Gumball,” according to the Gumball 3000 website. When they began dating in 2010, it was the first biracial relationship for both of them. “I’ve never been the type of person to discriminate,” Eve told Chelsea Handler in June. “But I honestly have to say I never thought I’d be with a white guy ever. But it just happened. It’s amazing. I’m the first black girl he’s ever been with too.”
4. He’s Been Married Before
While this will be Eve’s first marriage, Cooper was previously married to his former business partner Julie Brangstrup, and has four children, ages 4 to 10.
5. Cooper and Eve Have Talked More Children
At first Eve wasn’t sure about becoming a stepmom, the star of “Barbershop” and her own sitcom “Eve” told Sister 2 Sister magazine this past May. “I was like, ‘I’m not sure this is what I want to be my life.’ You know? But honestly, it’s been three years now and we’ve gone on vacations together, and they’re the sweetest kids.” She and Cooper have even discussed adding more kids to the mix. “We talk about having kids. We talk about marriage,” she told the magazine. “The kids are excited. They want a brown baby sister.”
SHOWS: Good Morning America
‘Tikker’ Watch Counts Seconds Until Your Death
Dec 31, 2013 2:47pm
What if you could know the exact moment of your death? Well, one ghoulish marketer will be counting down the seconds until he dies, as revelers tick off the seconds until the New Year’s Eve ball-drop in Times Square.
“Death is non-negotiable, life isn’t,” said Swedish inventor Fredrik Colting, who has a Kickstarter campaign for a so called “death watch.”
Colting, a former gravedigger who now lives in Los Angeles, calls his new product – Tikker – a happy watch, one that “counts down your life (but in a good way).”
“I think that if we are aware of death, and our own expiration, that we will have a greater appreciation for life,” Colting told ABCNews.com. “Some people have gone through near-death experiences, or survived serious illnesses, and they come out of it with a new way to look at life. They no longer sweat the small stuff, but are simply happy to be alive.”
Colting, 37, got the idea for the watch when his grandfather died: “It made me think about death and the transience of life, and I realized that nothing matters when you are dead. Instead, what matters is what we do when we are alive.”
Potential customers find the idea intriguing. Mark G. Auerbach, a publicist from Longmeadow, Mass. , quipped that the wrist watch “would be helpful.”
“I could put out the trash, change into clean underwear and blast some Ethel Merman one last time in the neighborhood while sipping latte,” he said.
The watch-wearer simply fills out a questionnaire and inputs age and the countdown begins. Tikker uses a common algorithm used by the federal government to estimate a person’s life expectancy.
Ann Rosen Spector, a Philadelphia psychologist who specializes in adult development, said that if she knew she were going to die, she would “dig into a pint of Haagen-Dazs vanilla almond [ice cream].”
But she said other people are usually in denial about their death.
“Most people can’t even write a will or an advanced directive,” Rosen Spector said. “Facing up to their own mortality is not something most people want. Everyone wants to die at 99 in their sleep. Even when people have a terminal illness, they live in denial about how long they have.”
Tikker will be available in April 2014 for $79, according to Colting’s group, who say they have already received thousands of orders from “everyone from teenagers to retired folks” in the United States, France, Brazil, Vietnam and Russia, as well as other countries, according to Colting.
“I think that we have two things that unite us humans, all over the world, and that is that one day we are born, and one day we die,” he said. “Everyone can relate to this, and everyone thinks about the concept of life and death.”
A Buddhist organization has even expressed interest in the watch as it ticks with their religious philosophy, Colting said.
But Nancy Dunbar Stevens, a rector at The Church of the Epiphany & Ephphatha Mission of the Deaf in Rochester, N.Y., is not so sure.
“On the one hand, I’d know how much time I’d have to squeeze in all the things I want to do but haven’t, say things to people that need to be said, and make amends when necessary and possible,” Stevens said.
“But, on the other hand, not knowing allows me to be open to discovery, make choices not dependent on timing and to seek God’s presence in my every day life.”
Hospital Staffers Wear ‘Fat Suit’ to Help With Treatment of Obese
Dec 31, 2013 12:43pm
The staff at a London hospital are required to wear a fat suit, or bariatric suit, to understand what it’s like to be obese. Courtesy Peterborough and Stamford Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
Staff a British hospital have been wearing a “fat suit” to better understand the problems of their obese patients.
The clinical staff at Peterborough and Stamford Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust are said to be “walking in patients’ shoes” thanks to a £1,000 donation by the Friends of Peterborough Hospitals. The hospital is located about two hours outside of London.
By using the suit, purchased from the American branch of Sunflower Medical, staff experience real life situations when caring for a patient who is almost 400 pounds. The education received will help to reduce injuries to both patients and staff by highlighting the limitations.
The number of the hospital’s patients weighing over 392 pounds has risen from six in 2010 to 52 in 2013.
When worn by staff it is designed to give them the proportions of a 560 pound person and restrict their movement in the way the fat of an obese person would restrict their movement.
“I found it quite uncomfortable to be completely flat on my back,” said Julie Tebb of the hospital’s moving and handling team. ” It restricts my airways, and I find it difficult to breath.”
Moving and handling trainer Rolf Stobbart said the suit helps staff “think about patients in a different way.”
SHOWS: Good Morning America
‘Hunger Games’ Star Gets an Amazing Mockingjay Salute
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When Josh Hutcherson headed home for the holidays he never could have predicted that he’d get this kind of a welcome.
The “Hunger Games” star, 21, attended a Kentucky Wildcats basketball game near his hometown of Union, Ky., on Dec. 28, and greeted the crowd at halftime.
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In response, his fellow Wildcat fans gave him the three-finger Mockingjay salute from his famous films.
It’s appropriate, especially given the Kentucky connection that Hutcherson has with his co-star, Louisville native Jennifer Lawrence.
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“It was kind of an instant bonding factor, being from the same place,” Hutcherson told Kentucky.com last year . “For me, it was the upbringing; it’s the family and the culture and everything. It felt like her and I were on the same page with that whole thing. There’s an understanding when you’re from the same place, an instant sort of connection with someone.”