Over the last year, Busta Rhymes has been on a health and wellness journey that’s seen him lose 100 pounds.
The 51-year-old opened up about his weight loss in a new cover story for Men’s Health, revealing that post-coital breathing issues is what compelled him.
He shared that after being intimate with his now ex-wife, he experienced something like an asthma attack. Busta said, “I was having a really difficult time breathing, so I got up and I walked out of the bedroom so she wouldn’t panic seeing me trying to keep myself calm.”
He continued, “I was trying to inhale, and it felt like it wasn’t working. I felt like I was having an asthma attack—but I don’t have asthma. So I walked out of the bedroom and went into the living room, and I was forcing myself to inhale, to relax.”
He described the moment as a “mindfuck”—and it was clear that he and his then-wife were both worried.
“She was like, ‘Yo, this is not who I fell in love with.’ She didn’t know what had happened outside, but she was looking at my body and the weight. She was like, ‘You gotta lose this weight. This breathing is scaring me. When I met you, you wasn’t like a musclehead, but you was slim, you was cut, you had your shit right. I need you to get back to who I fell in love with.'”
