Halle Berry is a girl's girl, but it's no secret she has love for men too. However, her list of high-profile relationships has been met with harsh criticism like "she can't keep a man." In true Halle Berry fashion, the star addressed the trolls with a classy clapback via Instagram last year writing:
"Who said I wanted to keep them? I'm all about living your best life, if you make a wrong move, course correct and re-spin and start again!"
We couldn't have said it any better! The Hollywood star is all about the re-spin and so are we. The 53-year-old mom of two chatted with friend Lena Waithe over an Instagram Live a year ago about how it's been navigating singledom after her last divorce with actor Olivier Martinez. "I have decided to take time. I'm very much a relationship-oriented person, I always want to be with someone. But I decided, no I'm going to slow my roll, I'm going to take a minute and I'm going to spent time with me," she said.
"One year led to two years and two years is now leading to three years. But I'm fine because I think the next relationship I have I think I will have a better chance of attracting and choosing what's right for me because I've taken this time to think about what's important to me."
She continued, "I no longer feel the need for a relationship so I don't feel the need to rush or accept something that's not totally right for me. Not that anything's wrong with the people I've been with but I'm going to wait for my match or I will stay solo and be with my kids and do my life the way I'm doing it."
Chris Pizzello-Pool/Getty Images
Fast forward a year later, and Halle has hit another re-spin! She and new beau Van Hunt made their official couple debut on the 2021 Oscars red carpet. The couple was the talk of the awards show, but we want to talk about how Halle is living proof that simply just settling should never be an option. She looks happier than ever since she started dating the Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter in September 2020.
Below see Halle's dating history (including three marriages) that led her to her newfound love at 53. Say it with us, respin.
Danny Wood (1989):
Larry Busacca/WireImage
Halle's first relationship thrust into the limelight was with New Kids on the Block's Danny Wood. It was brief but the paparazzi loved the pair even though Halle hadn't shot to stardom yet.
Christopher Williams (1991-1992):
Aside from dating Halle Berry, R&B crooner Christopher Williams is most known for his hit singles "Talk to Myself" (1989), "I'm Dreamin'" (1991), and "Every Little Thing U Do" (1993).
David Justice (1993-1997):
Ron Davis/Getty Images
This pro-baseball player was Halle's first husband. It's safe to say that things did not end amicably between the two since after their split Halle filed for a restraining order against David Justice. In the past, the actress has also been transparent about trying to commit suicide after the failure of their marriage. She told Parade magazine via PEOPLE:
"It was all about a relationship. My sense of worth was so low. I promised myself I would never be a coward again."
Shemar Moore (1997-1998):
Although Halle dated the Criminal Minds actor during the prime of her career, they were very private. Only in recent years has Shemar Moore opened up. "She was the first woman to really knock my socks off. I fell hard for Halle. A lot of people now know we dated, but we had to keep it hush-hush at the time because she was fresh off her divorce from David Justice. I'm still grateful for that relationship," spilled in an interview circa 2013.
Eric Benét (2001-2005):
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This R&B/neo soul singer-songwriter and actor, who has received a total of four Grammy nominations, was the second man to put a ring on Halle's finger. After meeting in 1997, the pair got engaged three years later and officially tied the knot in January 2001. Eric Benet and Halle Berry quickly went from Hollywood "it" couple to divorce after he admitted to infidelity on his part. Halle opened up to Oprah Winfrey about their marriage saying she had an emotional breakdown when he told her about his affairs, but that she became stronger after the marriage failed.
"I had an emotional breakdown... I knew for a fact, 'this is not my fault.' Because I knew I'd been a good wife. I'd given a lot of myself and I learned from mistakes I thought I made in my first marriage. I knew I had grown in many areas."
Michael Ealy (2004-2005):
Halle had chemistry with her Their Eyes Were Watching God co-star Michael Ealy on and off-screen. Although it didn't work out, the actors remain friends till this day.
Gabriel Aubry (2005-2010):
Steve Granitz/WireImage
When Halle began dating this Canadian model, the two were pictured everywhere. They share a daughter, Nahla, together who they've famously battled over in court.
Olivier Martinez (2013-2016):
Halle Berry married French actor Olivier Martinez shortly after her split from Aubry. Their son Marco, was born soon after that. Olivier famously got into a fistfight during his time with Halle with her ex Aubry that made headlines.
Alex da Kid (2017):
After her third marriage didn't work out, Halle dated this British musician for a couple of months.
Van Hunt (Present):
Chris Pizzello-Pool/Getty Images
Halle gushed about her new man in a sweet birthday post ahead of their Oscars debut:
"A real woman can do it all by herself, but a real MAN won't let her. Happy birthday VanO. I only wish I'd known you sooner so I could have loved you longer!"
#Respin
Featured image by Chris Pizzello-Pool/Getty Images
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Skylar sees things differently. At the time, she was shooting content on her iPhone. Temi came into the picture with a new perspective, an understanding of tech, and, eventually, a camera. “He doesn't give himself enough credit,” Skylar says. “He wasn't just my tripod. He wasn't just standing behind the camera and going ‘click.’ He was giving advice. He was giving me insight to how I could look at things from a different perspective. And I was like, 'Oh, he’s an artist.' I think it was maybe a heartbeat of that kind of energy of like, ‘Baby, can you take this picture?’ And it turned so quickly into, we're partners. We can work together in a way where we're advancing each other's creative thinking.”
The pair often says they’re two sides of the same coin. Skylar is an Aquarius. She attended art school, paints, and loves poetry. She’s more than happy to let the couple’s management firm and agency, Kensington Grey, handle their admin work. And, she loves to sleep in. Temi, on the other hand, wakes up early. He’s a Virgo. He loves a to-do list and regularly checks in on the couple’s brand partnerships spreadsheet to make sure everything is on track.
Because his storytelling was steeped in his love of technology, he didn’t always think of himself as a creative person. “Where I [am] the dreamer who wants to pluck things out of the sky and spend all day with my head in the clouds, Temi [is] so good at grounding me and helping me figure out how to make things make sense on paper. We just work together in such a complimentary way,” Skylar says.
It’s been more than six years since Brooklyn-based couple Temi and Skylar started dating, and nearly four since they cemented their working relationship. On TikTok and Instagram, the couple’s travel, fashion, and home content regularly rack up hundreds of thousands of views. They’ve worked with brands such as Coach, Aesop, Away, and Liquid IV, bringing their vibrant perspectives to every campaign they execute. Still, nearly two years since both Temi and Skylar committed to full-time content creation and creative directing, the couple says their romantic connection remains their priority.
“We told each other we would much rather go back to full-time jobs and preserve our relationship than to be full-time freelancers, barely getting a night's rest [and] barely kissing each other because we're so busy shooting,” Skylar says.
Working from home can make it hard to separate work from personal life for any entrepreneur. It can be even more challenging when your business partner is also your lover. Temi and Skylar had already used couples therapy as a tool to help them effectively communicate with one another. When they ran into challenges while working together, their therapist helped them set physical boundaries to help combat the issues.
"We told each other we would much rather go back to full-time jobs and preserve our relationship than to be full-time freelancers, barely getting a night's rest [and] barely kissing each other because we're so busy shooting."
“It actually took us doing very specific physical things to create boundaries between work and play in our relationship,” Skylar says. “So, for instance, we will only have conversations about work when we're out of bed or we're at the table or in the office. Initially, when we started, we had to light a candle to say that, 'Okay, this is a space where we're connecting, we’re not talking about work.' We needed really hard boundaries at the top. And then it became a little bit more organic.”
The boundaries have been crucial to implement, especially because the couple began working together so naturally. When the pair first met, Skylar was NY-based a social strategist for BuzzFeed and was using content creation to drive business to her lingerie company. She was shooting her own content. Temi was working for Microsoft in D.C. He’d recently traded in his DJing equipment for a camera. “I've always loved taking pictures,” he says. “Even when I was a kid, my African mother would wake me up at 3:00 a.m. [during a] party, and be like, 'Come take the family picture.'”
Growing up, Temi says he watched his parents support each other and be the true definition of partners. He knew he wanted the same for his own relationship. But, the couple also wanted to make sure they were being financially responsible. The pair didn’t quit their traditional jobs until they’d saved up two years' worth of their cost of living. And, Temi received his Master of Business Administration from New York University with the knowledge that it could either help him advance in his corporate career or be applicable to his business with Skylar.
Temi and SkylarCj Hart @hartbreakToday, they say their working relationship is more of a “quiet dance.” They still implement some of the boundaries they learned in therapy, but they also lean into their natural strengths and deep love for one another. When we speak, Temi has planned a date for the couple to see Princess Mononoke in 4K IMAX and added it to their Notion so they can factor it into their busy schedules. “I fully plan to date for the rest of my life,” he says.
Skylar says the couple doesn’t just wait for date nights to check in with one another, though. This often happens in the mornings, after Temi has made her peppermint tea and poured himself a cup of coffee. When they ask each other how they slept, she says, it’s not just a “nicety.” It’s a genuine question meant to foster connection.
“A lot of it happens during the day in the midst of work. We'll stop and we'll hug. Or we’ll slow dance in the kitchen,” she says. “Sometimes it's hard to set a whole date night when you have 7,000 things going on. So, we must grasp these moments and check in when we can. And I think it's become so organic to us that I actually didn't even realize how often we do it. But all day long, we're like, 'Are you good? I felt like your energy shifted,' because we're best friends, we just know. We just feel it happen.”
What’s better than being in love? Building wealth while doing it. Watch Making Cents here for real stories of couples who make money moves together.
Featured image by Cj Hart @hartbreak
