December 18, 2024– Matthew Lawrence and Rozonda ‘Chilli’ Thomas started off as “best friends”.

The 44-year-old actor got together with former TLC singer Chili, 53, just months after he and ‘Dancing with the Stars’ professional Cheryl Burke in late 2022 and has now spoken of how “great” it is to have met someone who is “so strong, healthy and happy” in life.

When asked if they are “best friends”, he told told ‘Entertainment Tonight’: “Yeah. And we started off that way.

“I wish I could take credit for [it being a healthy relationship] but it’s really all her. She’s spent so much time on just getting to the best possible place she could be in her life. Meeting someone who is just so strong, so healthy and happy, has a great family and understands family – it’s just really great, yeah!”

The ‘Waterfalls’ hitmaker previously insisted in the early months of the relationship, nothing was “fake” about it.

Speaking to New York Post column PageSix at the Variety’s Power of Women luncheon, she explained: “It’s real and there is nothing fake about it. I’m here with him because I wanna be and he wants to be. We’re just so happy, we really are.

“I honestly didn’t think that I would experience what I’m experiencing now [in my relationship] and I was OK with that.”

“He has changed everything, the way I look at relationships. It’s so different.”

‘Marry Christmas’ star Matthew previously opened up about how they got together, revealing they met at an event but only properly connected when they found themselves on the same flight.

However, the chance meeting almost didn’t happen because they only ended up on the same plane after a snowstorm derailed Matthew’s travel plans.

He explained: “So we were at this thing. We were working. We just said hello in passing and probably nothing would’ve come of that, but there was this big snowstorm. I had to be back for work, so I was getting them [the airline] to change my flights all around.

“The only flight I could get was a connecting flight through Atlanta. She lives in Atlanta. So, she was flying on that flight. So, really it was the flight, talking and then afterwards saying: ‘Hey, let’s keep in contact.’

“That’s really what made it, and it almost did not happen. I mean, literally, an hour before the flight took off they were like, ‘OK, we got you on this flight. You gotta go.’ So it was just like that kind of thing.”