Hello and welcome to Let's Talk About It. This is Taylor, your host and today's episode

is going to be all about fathers and specifically father and daughter relationships, being a black

father and also being biracial. So today I'm going to have a very, very special person

as a guest here with me and they've been on the podcast before. So if you have listened

for a long time, I don't even remember what episode number it is, but it's titled Being

By Racial and you'll probably recognize him from my Instagram. I constantly put his children

on my Instagram. So if you've always been wondering who those adorable kids are, this is

the man and going to share with you all a little bit about just kind of the role he's played

in my life and you know, in lieu of a father's day approaching us. I'm hoping that this episode

will leave you with some kind of insight or different perspective or perhaps feel relatable

and feel helpful and comforting in some way. So today I'm here with Robert Valentine, who

I've always considered my chosen father and I was his practice daughter. So thanks for

coming back on the podcast and happy almost father's day. Thank you. Thank you. I appreciate

that. Yeah. I know we talked about this in the last episode that you were on, but let's

maybe take a trip down memory lane for a sec and talk about who you are, how you became

part of my life, what it means to be a chosen father. So how did you first meet me?

Okay, so I think I met you. My date might be wrong or your age. I think it was around you. You were

four or five. And basically your mom was dating my best friend for a long time and not a long time,

but back in those days, I was considered a long time. Yeah. So basically whenever I would go up,

of course, I was third wheel. We lived in DC, Northern Virginia, and you guys lived in New Jersey.

So I would always, in the beginning, I don't know if it was bring me along to kind of like

you or if, but it was, you know, it was like, hey, let's go to New Jersey to take the road trip

...