Ciara Reveals Family Secret and Talks Life After Future: 'I Was Ready to Level Up'

Ciara just revealed something she's never spoken about publicly.

It wasn't something the R&B performer necessarily intended to share, but when RuPaul asked her during an interview Friday if her parents were still together, she reluctantly opened up.

"So, actually, I've never said this before, but I can think I can say it [and be] okay within myself," she stuttered. "My parents were married for 33 years, and they're not together anymore. However, they are both happily married, so that's good."

The 33-year-old mother of two said hearing the news of their split was an "out-of-body" experience because "Mom, Dad and Baby" was the only family unit she knew.

"Imagine, you go for 33 years of Mom and Dad being together, and then when I had my child -- my son, my first child -- I was like, 'I just know Mommy and Daddy that made Baby is what the scenario's supposed to be,'" she explained. "So that was like 'whoa' when that happened in my life, 'cause this is not what I know."

She added the two "went separate ways shortly after Russell [Wilson] came into our lives." She was 29, going on 30.

As always, Ciara gushed over her Seattle Seahawks quarterback husband, telling Ru they met in Los Angeles through a mutual friend.

"The first day we saw each other was like, 'Yessir!'" she said with a laugh, adding that in that moment, she felt God had answered her prayers.

"Before I met my husband, I went through one of the most challenging phases of my life," Ciara explained. "I was a single mom, and I had never been in that place before. That really made me stop and take a look back on the journey, and I was like, 'Okay, I've gotta change something up here.'"

"I've always been a person that's prayed no matter what the circumstance is, but when I would pray at that point, I'd be very specific about what I was hoping for in my life as it related to love and also just me, my own growth," she said. "I was ready to level up in general, just in life in general, period. I was wanting a lot more from myself, and so I definitely would pray a lot. I would cry a lot, and then I would pray a lot, and God is good!"

"I did meet the love of my life sooner than I'd planned and kind of thought I was going to in my life," she continued. "In my mind, I thought I would be single for four years, and I met him actually when my son was 10 months old. And that was a very special moment because he came into our lives and was ready to love the both of us with everything. He was changing diapers. When our son -- I say our son -- when [Baby] Future made his first steps, he was just as excited as I was. God is good because I really didn't know that would happen. I really was like, 'I'm gonna be single for four years. I'm sitting still. I'm gonna just be still for a second. Lemme just figure this out.' And he came in our lives way sooner than I even thought would happen."

Ciara and her son's biological father, rapper Future, struck up a whirlwind romance after a few collaborations in 2012 and 2013. After getting their initials tattooed on each other, the couple got engaged in October 2013. Soon after, they announced they were expecting their first child together. They welcomed Baby Future in May 2014 but split by the end of the year, allegedly over claims Future had been unfaithful.

Ru asked Ciara what she thought that "tumultuous" time in her life was supposed to teach her.

"I say on this album, 'All the scars that you get from the obstacles you face in life are actually beauty marks,'" she replied. "So for me, I got to a place where I was able to reflect on the journey and say, 'Wow, those moments felt so ugly, and they felt like scars when I was going through them, but they actually are what has made me who I am today, and they're actually beautiful scars. They're my beauty marks.'"

Ciara said after that, she promised herself she wouldn't make the "same mistakes again," because having her son changed everything.

"Once you have a child, the level of responsibility just goes up to a whole 'nother level," she said. "There's no room to experiment. I'm not experimenting with my son's life. That's how I was looking at it."

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