Gabe Solis, ex-husband of reality TV star Trina Braxton, passed away in his native Texas on Friday after a secret battle with cancer. He was 43.
Hollywoodlife.com reports Gabe was surrounded by family when he died. He kept his illness a secret, even from his closest friends.
Gabe, a software designer by trade, appeared alongside his then-wife Trina on Braxton Family Values until they divorced in 2015. Their love/hate relationship continued to play out on subsequent episodes of the show.
Gabe and Trina, 44, were married in 2003 when her sons Eric and Caleb were 8 and 5.
Gabe proposed to Trina on the rooftop of the Georgian Terrace Hotel, across the street from the famed Fox Theater in Atlanta.
Trina said “yes” but she didn’t like the ring he bought for her, so they exchanged it.
Marital problems soon led to numerous arguments, fights and breakups, and Gabe eventually moved out of the couple’s suburban Atlanta home.
In a last ditch effort to save their marriage, they appeared on an episode of Iyanla: Fix My Life, where Trina complained about his infidelities and he complained about her domestic abuse.
“I’m angry at you for bullying me and pushing me around,” Gabe said through tears. He told Iyanla he stayed with Trina because he was used to the abuse he suffered at her hands. He said she had become an “enemy” to him.
Trina’s sons Eric, 23, and Caleb, 20, were not fond of Gabe while he was alive.
During an episode of Braxton Family Values, Trina told her sons that Gabe was going to be in Los Angeles where the show was taping. Caleb tells his mother, “You know I never really like him, at all.”
Trina did not comment on her ex-husband’s passing on Friday, but she posted an image on Instagram.com that read: “I need a HUG…E bottle of wine.”
