Is Matt Barnes Dating Cyn Santana? The Subtle Clue These Two May Be An Item
The former NBA star is now known for his shenanigans off the court.
getty In his prime, he was a monster on the basketball courts. For 14 seasons, he delighted fans of the NBA when he played for a variety of teams. Drafted in 2002 as a second-round pick, he started out playing for the Memphis Grizzlies. But it wasn't until 2017, in his last season with the league as a member of the Golden State Warriors, that he finally was able to procure a much-coveted NBA Championship for his team.
And though, in the past, he mostly made the news because of his career with the NBA, he's making the news these days for a variety of different reasons — namely, because of his love life, including the most recent rumors with Love & Hip Hop: New York star Cyn Sanata.
Is Matt Barnes dating Cyn Santana? Let's look at what we know about him and his messy love situations.
1. Is Matt Barnes dating Cyn Santana? They were holding hands at a party.
According to a source, Barnes has recently begun dating Love & Hip Hop star Cyn Santana. The source reports that Barnes and Santana attended a birthday party for Cordell Broadus — son of Snoop Dogg — together, and they were "holding hands" at the party. The source also said that the rumored new couple was trying to keep it "lowkey" but weren't very lowkey by the time the party was over.
Neither party has commented about this alleged new dating situation. But first, a little history on Matt Barnes.
2. Barnes's mother died of cancer.
Barnes was born to a white mother and a Black father in Santa Clara, CA. His brother, Jason, also played professional basketball but he played for the Canadian league.
But what's most notable of all is that Barnes' mother died of cancer in 2007, the year before his final season with the Golden State Warriors. She was so proud of her son, in fact, that she reportedly wanted to be buried in a Warriors jersey.
3. He was married to a Basketball Wife.
From 2013 to 2016, Barnes was married to Gloria Govan, best known for her role on the hit reality show Basketball Wives. They were originally supposed to get married in 2010, but called off their wedding. This calling off of the wedding led to Govan's Basketball Wives co-stars speculation that their relationship was "rocky." But in reality, according to Barnes, they were trying to raise their then-infant twin boys, and being on a reality show didn't help matters in their relationship. After their divorce, Barnes would go on to say that appearing on Basketball Wives was the biggest mistake of his life.
4. At one point, Barnes got a restraining order against Govan.
In 2018, Govan was arrested at her sons' school. As a result, Barnes went out of his way to get a temporary restraining order against her. The order required that Govan couldn't go within 100 yards of the kids, she was only allowed to have 4 hours of supervised visitation per week with her children, and she wasn't allowed to approach Barnes except to pick up their children.
5. In 2017, he was with Anansa Sims.
While he was still in the midst of his battles with his ex-wife, Barnes started hooking up with Anansa Sims. They were together for a year before they welcomed a son, Ashton. However, on February 5, 2020, the pair confirmed that they were no longer together.
6. There seems to be drama in the Barnes-Sims split.
Unfortunately, the split between Barnes and Sims is anything but amicable, at this point. It all started when Barnes posted a photo on Instagram of himself with Ashton, his son with Sims, with the caption, "missing my Lil man. Hopefully, I’ll be allowed to see you soon." You can check out the post below.
This prompted Sims to make a series of Instagram posts — which have since been deleted, but whose screenshots have been preserved — where she accused Barnes of being a toxic person, then said that "my kids see their father. I'm praying the restraining order protects me and keeps me safe."
Bernadette Giacomazzo is an editor, writer, publicist, and photographer whose work has appeared in Teen Vogue, People, Us Weekly, The Source, XXL, HipHopDX, The Los Angeles Times, The New York Post, BET.com, and more.