Noughties singer, 40, has barely aged 22 years after being ‘forced out’ of girl band after bandmate ‘threw KFC’ at her
NOUGHTIES icon Naturi Naughton-Lewis looks absolutely incredible over 20 years since she first found fame in girlband, 3LW.
The 40-year-old singer could easily be confused for still being in her 20s, and last week she appeared on New York chat show Hoda and Jenna to talk about her latest work.
While she was initially a pop star, Naturi is now a fully-fledged actress, appearing in 50 Cent’s massively successful Power franchise as Tasha St Patrick.
She also played Lil Kim in the celebrated film Notorious, based on the life of Notorious B.I.G, Christopher ‘Biggie Smalls’ Wallace.
Now, she’s starring in the Lifetime movie, Abducted at an HBCU: A Black Girl Missing Movie.
But her career started back in 1999 where, at the age of 15, she joined Adrienne Bailon and Kiely Williams in 3LW.
Launching their first single No More (Baby I’ma Do Right) in 2000, the group were shot into the RnB stratosphere, becoming iconic with their self-titled debut album going platinum and selling over 1.3million records.
However, her time in the band ground to a screeching halt due to ongoing feuds within the band, shortly before the release of their LP, A Girl Can Mack, in August 2002.
Naturi said the rest of the girls, as well as the management, forced her out of the group.
Years later, it emerged that Kiely threw a plate of KFC at her during an argument.
Speaking about the moment in 2021, Kiely explained how her career had turned into “a fried chicken meme” but said: “I didn’t throw chicken at anybody. The chicken was in my hand, but if you call my mother a b***h, I’m throwing whatever.”
“Everybody laughed at first, and that sucks because that’s kind of what I wanted to let go of,” she told BET Presents: The Encore.
“That joke and the fact that when I brought out the chicken, everybody laughed was kind of reaffirming everything that I had been scared about.
“All of that kills me because it was so much more than that. Unfortunately, we were at a fast-food restaurant. I can’t change that.”
She later tweeted after the interview: “Throwing hands and whatever is in [me] over my mother. She is a saint.
“If my phone was in my hand and not my dinner, she would’ve gotten that. And none of you would’ve done any different. #betpresentstheencore.”
Naturi later continued to work as a musician, starring as Lil Kim in Notorious, before appearing and recording songs for the soundtrack of the film remake adaptation of Fame in 2009.
She later moved into acting more completely, appearing in Mad Men before landing roles in shows including The Playboy Club, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, and The Client List.
In March 2017, she had her first child, a baby girl.
She’s now the proud mother of two, giving birth to a son in May 2023, a year after getting married to film producer and entrepreneur Two Lewis.