"Well, here's the deal: I signed it."
And with those seven little words, a romantic relationship was born
Not many people are asked to sign a legal document before entering a romance. But that's exactly what Miranda Pearman-Maday did when she first started dating former Disney star Raven-Symoné back in 2015. But, ironically enough, it was Raven who ended up kissing and telling when she publicly revealed that Miranda, her wife of three years, had signed the non-disclosure agreement she'd gotten in the habit of giving to potential paramours.
"I don't even know what was going on," Raven told E! News' Francesca Amiker of dropping the surprising details in the May 23 episode of the Howie Mandel Does Stuff podcast. "I think I blacked out during that interview and then my wife was like, 'You told people we had an NDA?!'"
Miranda added, "I didn't even know what had happened, but I started getting text messages from people asking me, 'Is it true that you signed this?' It's all Howie Mandel's fault!" (Tom Sandoval might agree on that front post-Scandoval.)
After rising to fame when she joined The Cosby Show at just 4 years old, Raven noted that she has to be "careful" while doing interviews, the now 37-year-old joking she will only do them with Miranda by her side, which will be easier to do since the couple launched their new venture, Best Podcast Ever, on July 10.
While the pair have been together for almost a decade, their romance almost ended before it began when the That's So Raven star first asked Miranda to sign on the dotted line.
"She said, 'You gotta sign this,' and I said, 'Wow, that's really sad, I don't want to sign that,'" Miranda, 35, explained. "Because it made me feel like everything in her life is basically this contractual agreement, even her love life. But then we had a talk about it and she was like, 'Listen, if you want to date me you have to sign this.'"
Raven added, "You did it because you want to be with me!" Which, she did, Miranda revealing to E! that she knew Raven was the one for her immediately.
"It was really quick for me," she said. "It was within a couple of days of knowing each other quite honestly."
As for Raven?
"It took me a little bit longer to figure that one out" she admitted. "I was in my special phase when we met. I was out here in these streets back in the day." (Yes, they all had to sign NDAs, too.)
But, after the pair reconciled after a breakup, the same internal voice that guided Raven to join a Disney Channel series about a psychic teenager spoke to her again.
"I listen to it when that booming voice comes into my brain and I woke up next to her and it was like, 'Marry her,'" Raven explained. "And I went on and got the ring that night."
The couple got married in a surprise backyard wedding in June 2020, both fully committing to their relationship and their professional aspirations.
"We respect each other, we're besties first and foremost. We're lovers, we're business partners and we know that there is a common goal," Raven shared. "At the beginning of our relationship we had a conversation about what our life is going to look like and we both have really big ambitions when it comes to our careers.
"So our relationship is creating, being partners in business," Raven continued, "and then at nighttime we Netflix it up with each other and we have our weekends where we do staycations and things of that nature."
And their new podcast, Best Podcast Ever, is the perfect blend of the personal and professional for Raven and Miranda. In each episode, they will spin a wheel with random words to determine where the conversation with their famous guests starts. "Nothing is off-limits with this podcast," Miranda promised. "We want to go in and go in hard."
Given Raven's penchant for privacy, the show gives the former co-host of The View the power to tell her story on her own terms.
"There is an understanding that we are allowing the world into our relationship here and there, but we are crafting the narrative ourselves and not just letting a mag tell a story that we have no say in," Raven explained. "With a podcast you are able to dive into who we are, how we speak to each other and what we think. If you take care of the story and you create that bubble then you know what's going to happen in the future."
That really is so Raven.
Best Podcast Ever with Raven-Symoné and Miranda Pearman-Maday is available wherever you listen to podcasts.