The boxing champion told Angela Yee's podcast she is letting her relationship with Papoose and his three children unfold naturally, rather than pushing for a ready-made family.
Claressa Shields isn't rushing anything. On Angela Yee's podcast 'Lip Service,' the undisputed heavyweight champion was asked how she plans to handle blended family life with her boyfriend Papoose, and her answer was blunt: she's not forcing it.
"I'm not gonna try to force nothing," Shields said, according to a clip shared by The Shade Room. "Like I said, it's a whole little court going on they have to get that finished and I don't know how that would be after, but I'm not gonna worry myself with that."
That line is doing a lot of work. Papoose has three children from previous relationships: a daughter, Reminisce Mackenzie, with rapper Remy Ma, plus a daughter, Dejanae Mackie, and a son, Shamele Mackie. Shields and Remy Ma reportedly don't get along, per The Shade Room, which makes the blended family question a genuinely loaded one and not just podcast small talk.
Shields didn't dodge it though. She said she trusts Papoose to keep being the father he already is, whatever shape the family ends up taking. "I know that he will always be an excellent father to his kids and that's what he's gon' do," she said. "Now, blended family, however it comes, it get dealt with. Hey, I'm not gonna stress myself about it."
Simple enough. But the internet, predictably, split down the middle once the clip started doing rounds. Some commenters on the 'Lip Service' page called it a mature, well-handled response. Others felt Shields should have kept the question at arm's length altogether, with one commenter arguing her team ought to steer her away from anything touching Papoose's personal life. A few just wanted her talking about the ring and nothing else.
This isn't new territory for Shields. She's been open before about wanting kids of her own with Papoose, telling Fight Hype back in December 2025 that she hoped to become a mother this year but wanted a few more fights out of the way first. She's also said, more than once, that she has no interest in waiting until her 40s or her retirement to start a family. Her plan, by her own account, is to run boxing and motherhood at the same time.
"I want to be able to run at the park with my kids and stuff like that," she said at the time. "I don't want to be too old. So, I think keeping my body in shape... I don't drink or smoke. I think that will also help me too, when I'm going through this whole body and life change."
What Shields hasn't addressed, at least not publicly yet, is any direct conversation with Remy Ma or a timeline for when that unresolved legal matter she referenced actually wraps. Until it does, by her own telling, she's not touching it.
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