Actress Halle Bailey and YouTube star and musician Darryl Dwayne “DDG” Grandberry Jr. have been together for about a year and a half. But they have been aware of one another much longer as two young people who came up in the entertainment business.
The pair were first linked romantically in January 2022 after they were seen together in Las Vegas while at Usher’s residency there. Things became official a few months later on Instagram when DDG wished her a happy birthday in a now deleted video. He wrote at the time, “Happy Birthday to the beautifulest, the flyest, the sweetest ❤️ love you forever 🥺💎.”
Here’s the complete timeline of their relationship so far.
January 2022
The couple meet up in Las Vegas to enjoy an Usher concert and footage taken of them by other concert goers started circulating online. It was so popular, the word “Usher” began trending on Twitter. The video shows DDG drinking a beverage as Bailey talked to him excitedly, seeming to exclaim, “Oh my god!” over what was taking place on stage.
Later, the musician shared photos with the new couple on his Instagram Stories in which DDG has his arm around her shoulders.
June 2022
For their red carpet debut, the couple attended the BET Awards together.
“I have my boo with me today,” Bailey told Extra correspondent Rachel Lindsay at the event. “We’re so excited. We’re gonna have so much fun just supporting Chloe [for her solo performance]. It’ll be great!”
She added, “I was so nervous, like, we’re trying to figure out what to wear [and] all this stuff.”
DDG made an appearance in a TikTok video with Bailey that month as well, in which they look very intimate and are doing some vocal warm ups together.
“Singing lessons with @DDG,”she wrote in the caption.
August 2022
The couple were together at the Variety Power of Young Hollywood Event in Hollywood together.
October 2022
They attended the the 5th annual Wearable Art Gala.
November 2022
In an interview with Essence, Bailey talked about how she has been aware of DDG and a fan for a long time.
“I’ve been a fan of his for years,” she said. “I grew up being on YouTube and would always see the young Black creators and was constantly inspired by them. He was one of them.”
Bailey had seen his videos in 2015, but explained she “forgot about him” for a while.
She added, “But then I saw that he was dropping music, and I really gravitated toward this one song. Coincidentally he messaged me — and the rest is history.”
December 2022
DDG accompanied Bailey to the premiere of Avatar 2: The Way of Water.
February 2023
In February of 2023, fans started speculating about their relationship after DDG’s ex-girlfriend Rubi Rose tweeted about seeing her ex’s new girlfriend wear her old clothes in a tweet. She didn’t mention either DDG or Bailey by name, but it was quickly noted that Bailey was wearing a black and white t-shirt in an Instagram post that Rose had been seen in back in 2020.
Some took this to mean that DDG had recently cheated with Rose, somehow taking her shirt in the exchange, but that doesn’t seem to be what she is saying. DDG added fuel to the fire, however, when he unfollowed Bailey and tweeted “All these girls the same, ain’t no way.”
He later wrote that no cheating had gone down.
In a since deleted tweet, Bailey also addressed the rumors, writing, “The devil is working lol Please don’t feel into the lies, especially from a third party. Stay blessed everyone.”
DDG has since re-followed her.
March 2023
In March, they attended the Vanity Fair Oscar party together in Los Angeles.
April 2023
Bailey told British Vogue that love has changed her creative life as well.
“Experiencing deep love for the first time in my life is something I feel has opened a whole new world for me creatively,” she said. “What it feels like to love someone other than your family, like somebody you may not have known two years ago but now they’re the center of your world.”
She continued, “I like all of the scary feelings that come with that. I like the suspense, the not knowing what’s going to happen, and I feel like that’s what I’m supposed to be going through in womanhood.”
But it hasn’t been easy to manage her private life while her star was rising, particularly with the focus she received during press for Disney’s live action remake of The Little Mermaid.
“There’s a lot of eyes on me now, especially with what’s to come,” she said. “And sometimes I wish I didn’t have so many eyes on me, especially experiencing something like this for the first time.”
May 2023
In May, as the work of promoting her Disney film wound down, Bailey shared a TikTok of herself kissing her boyfriend, writing in the caption, “On my last day of press like…”
July 2023
On July 14, DDG faced considerable backlash after the release of his new song “Famous,” which seem to take aim at Bailey’s press tour for her role as Ariel in The Little Mermaid.
“Filmin’ a movie now you kissing dudes / You know I love you a lot / I don’t give a f–k if that s–t for promo / I don’t wanna see this s–t no more,” the lyrics go. “Why is y’all holdin’ hands in the photo? / You know I’m insecure, that’s a no-no.”
She held hands with co-star Jonah Hauer-King in May, the Prince Eric to her mermaid at the London premiere of their movie. DDG went on in his song to say:
“Fall in love, I hate that s–t / Knockin’ me off my grind, I can’t f–k with relationships/ I ain’t even got enough time in a day for me to chase a bitch / I don’t even ask for much, I ask you to do the basic s–t / Hardest thing I did was fall in love with a famous b-tch.”
Aimée Lutkin is the weekend editor at ELLE.com. Her writing has appeared in Jezebel, Glamour, Marie Claire and more. Her first book, The Lonely Hunter, will be released by Dial Press in February 2022.