ICE T’S FAMILY MOMENT GOES VIRAL — WHY COCO COULDN’T HOLD BACK TEARS AS CHANEL STARTS 4TH GRADE
For Ice T’s family, the first day of school was as emotional as any courtroom verdict on Law & Order: SVU. On September 8, his wife, Coco Austin, shared a heart-tugging Instagram post about dropping their 9-year-old daughter Chanel off for her first day of fourth grade.
The clip showed Coco trying her best to keep it together, while Chanel — cool and collected — playfully warned viewers what was about to happen.
“I think she’s going to cry, but she keeps saying no,” Chanel teased with a grin.
Coco, meanwhile, tried to psych herself up for a dry-eyed goodbye: “I can’t cry… this has to be the first year.”
But her daughter wasn’t buying it. “She’s going to cry,” Chanel predicted, and judging from Coco’s misty eyes, she might have been right.
In her caption, Coco admitted to feeling the jitters almost as much as her daughter. “Little chit chat with my mini before we walked into a new school this year… 4th grade jitters.. But I really do hope she thinks of me during the day..lol #firstdayofschool #4thgrade #schooldays.”
Chanel, however, seemed more than ready. After all, she’s already strutted across the SVU set and even made appearances on the Warped Tour stage. Compared to that, a classroom should be a walk in the park.
Ice T on the Benson–Stabler Question Fans Won’t Let Go
While Coco was busy with back-to-school emotions, Ice T was addressing another topic that’s been simmering for years: the will-they-won’t-they between Mariska Hargitay’s Olivia Benson and Christopher Meloni’s Elliot Stabler.
Asked in an August 2025 interview with Entertainment Weekly about a possible Benson-Stabler romance, Ice T gave the kind of blunt, grounded response only he can deliver.
“I don’t know, that’s just the show,” he said. “But I’ve been telling them to get a room for a long time.”
Then he reminded fans of the simple truth behind the drama: “News blast, it’s not real! There are writers behind it. People always say, ‘You should have done this. You should have done this.’ I’m like, I can only say the words they put in my mouth. I can say it my way, I can give it my flavor. But we’re going for a ride along with them.”
For fans, that ride has lasted 27 seasons and counting. And while the Bensler romance remains uncertain, one thing is clear: Ice T is still the voice of reason, both on-screen as Fin Tutuola and off-screen as a dad watching his daughter take on the fourth grade.