Who is Nicole Dean, Alicia Keys’ stepdaughter? The child of Jahna Sebastian and Swizz Beatz just celebrated her sweet 16, and was seen at the Blink Twice premiere with the ‘If I Ain’t Got You’ singer

Aug 20 , 2024

Alicia Keys is the stepmother to Swizz Beatz and Jahna Sebastian’s daughter, Nicole Dean. Photos: AP, @nicole.ad/Instagram

Nicole Dean is the child of 2 musicians and stepdaughter to another – multiple Grammy winner Keys – but judging by her social media, it seems that she’s the biggest fan of Lady Gaga

Keys has asked her stepchildren to call her ‘umi’, meaning mother in Arabic, a move that rubbed Sebastian the wrong way; Beatz’s ex-wife Mashonda Dean – mother to his son Kasseem Jr – disapproved, too

Grammy winner Alicia Keys’ one and only stepdaughter, Nicole Dean, is growing up before our very eyes. She recently celebrated her sweet 16, and posed with Eminem at the Riyadh Season Card fight between Terence Crawford and Israil Madrimov in Los Angeles, California.

Most recently, she was spotted at the premiere of Zoë Kravitz’s upcoming film Blink Twice with her stepmum Keys. Her father and Keys’ husband, Swizz Beatz, aka Kasseem Dean, has called Dean his twin, and she also looked cosy with her famous stepmum as she wrapped her arm around her waist. Dean wore a white button-down shirt paired with a black skirt, keeping it simple yet chic, and matching with Keys’ all-black ‘fit.

So what do we know about Nicole Dean?

Nicole Dean is the daughter of Swizz Beatz and Jahna Sebastian

Swizz Beatz had a grand celebration for his daughter when she turned 16. Photo: @therealswizzz/Instagram

Nicole Dean was born to rapper and producer Swizz Beatz and musician Jahna Sebastian on May 22, 2008. Beatz reportedly started dating the “Empire State of Mind” singer the same year that Dean was born.

Beatz is of Jamaican and Puerto Rican descent, per IMDB, while Sebastian has South Indian and Russian heritage.

Alicia Keys asked Nicole Dean to call her “Umi”

Christmas in the Dean family. Photo: @aliciakeys/Instagram

In her memoir More Myself: A Journey, Keys revealed that she asked her stepchildren to call her “Umi”, the Arabic word for mother, rather than “stepmum”.

However, Sebastian wasn’t too fond of this suggestion, as was evident from her declaration on Instagram: “I am the only mother to my child … No one else will be called any kind of ‘mum’ name in English, Arabic, not an ‘umi’ or anything else in other language by her [Dean].”

The beef continued when Beatz clapped back with an Instagram post of his own. Per her father, Nicole “chose to call [Alicia Keys] ‘umi’”. Sebastian later claimed that the post caused her to receive “violent threats” from fans.

Nicole Dean is very close to her mother, Jahna Sebastian, who calls her “Mish”. Photo: @jahnasebastian/Instagram

Previously, Beatz’s ex-wife Mashonda Dean, who is mother to his son Kasseem Jr, also expressed her disapproval of the “Umi” title when she told Sister 2 Sister Magazine, “You’re not his umi. You just met my son … if you want to be a stepmother, that’s great. Be a stepmother. But don’t think that it’s OK to make a kid call you ‘umi’ or ‘mummy.’”