Antonia Lofaso opened up about how her late partner, Heavy D, significantly influenced her career as a chef during an appearance on Bobby Flay's podcast. She shared, "He was instrumental in teaching me the enormity of life's possibilities." Lofaso recalled how the Heavy D & the Boyz frontman encouraged her during her culinary journey's infancy. "He was very instrumental in pushing me to go for it," she recalled. "I was in the presence of someone who radiated this unwavering greatness. You just go do it. Who cares if you're scared? None of that matters. What do you want? Be the best at it. And I was, like, almost overwhelmed by that kind of talk at such a young age."
The Food Network star remembered how the rapper predicted that she would one day be on TV. "He saw it in me," she said. "And he also said, ‘Why don't you see it in you?’ And also, ‘Why aren't you working towards that every single day?’" Lofaso added that his pushiness sometimes led to arguments between them. "In my mind, I was like, ‘Why are you being so critical of me?’ And he's like, ‘I am your best friend.'"
Lofaso and Heavy D share a daughter, Xea Meyers, who was born in 2000 and is now 26. The rapper died at age 44 in 2011, when Xea was a preteen. Reflecting on the rapper's death, Lofaso said it changed her perspective. "One of the things we used to argue about all the time is that he always felt like everything I fixated on was petty," she recalled. "He was like, ‘You're young. And the truth is, you fixate on these things because you've never lost anyone at a young age that sort of changes the way that you think and the way that you look at life.'" At the time, Lofaso was "so offended" by his remark. "I was like, ‘So, someone I love has to die in order for me to understand how life works.’ And he was like, ‘Yeah.' And he ended up being that for me, which was like the most ironic, wild thought."
In an interview with PEOPLE in October about her appearance on Sin City Rehab, Lofaso said that every year, especially on birthdays and holidays, she and Xea think about Heavy D. "There isn't a second that goes by, no matter how many years ago, that there isn't something that's remembered or talked about," she added.
