Cocoa Beware

You saw her in Petey Pablo’s “FreEk-A-Leek” video and fell in love. She was only 19 years old, and married then. Today, she’s divorced, grown and the inevitable—an even bigger problem!

Words: Matt Barone
Images: Charlie Langella

Hats off to the Baxter bunch.If it had not been for brotherly love, Esther “Miss Freek-A-Leek” Baxter’s assets would only be praised by lesbian ladies’-locker-room dwellers. One of her family’s whopping 16 children, the self-proclaimed “tomboy” preferred Everlast sports bras to Victoria’s Secret push-ups during her preglamour years in her native Miami. Luckily for breast men worldwide, one of Esther’s siblings saw the pulse-raising potential in the wannabe jock’s all-natural 34DD-24-40 frame (give it up for Mrs. Baxter, losers and gentleman) when she was 18. “One day, my brother randomly said, ‘I really think you should model,’” recalls the now 21-year-old Esther, of the fateful 2002 conversation. “I thought he was ridiculous, but I decided to let him introduce me to an agent that same day.” Within hours, the barely legal beauty signed her first modeling contract.

Twenty-four hours after the ink dried, the video virgin was an extra on her first set (TQ’s “Keep It on the Low”). However, while her on-screen cherry got popped, off set, the God-fearing bombshell kept her panties locked, proudly possessing her V-card amid the industry’s temptations. By ’03, having landed lead roles alongside Nelly and Diddy (“Shake Ya Tailfeather”) and Chingy (“One Call Away”/“Chingy Jackpot”), Esther’s untainted curves had starred in wet dreams across the country. But it wasn’t until Valentine’s Day of that year that the luscious Libra removed her chastity belt upon marrying her boyfriend of two years. Shortly after, her breakthrough performance in Petey Pablo’s “Freek-A-Leek” clip gave Esther another cause for celebration. “After that video blew up, my life started to change,” she says. “I got more photo shoots and interviews. And there was more that people could ask me about, because they felt like they knew me a little more."