Three divorces, alleged abuse, and fighting racism both on and off the screen. Halle Berry
brings her difficult life experiences to the screen with her award-winning performances.
Halle Berry encountered racism at a very young age when she moved out of
Cleveland's inner city and into the suburbs, where crime rates were lower but the vast
majority of the population was white. As she explained to People Magazine in 2017,
"Because my mother was white and my father was Black... we got called Oreos and names,
and kids just didn't understand, so we were different. We were the brunt of a lot of jokes."
Berry compensated by pushing herself to excel in class,
and she eventually also became editor of the newspaper, class president,
and cheerleader. She was also popular enough to be voted prom queen, though she was accused
of cheating her way into the position. As she recalled to The New York Times in 1995,
"I had worked so hard to be accepted, but when it came to being a standard of beauty for the school,
they didn't want me. That taught me. No more being a dancing bear."
Berry endured tough times after she moved away from home and tried to become a model.
She credits her mother with teaching her how to stand on her own two feet. After a
bad roommate left their Chicago apartment without paying $1,300 in rent, Berry's mom
refused to bail her out and pay off the bill. As Berry recalled to People Magazine in 2015,
"She made me realize I had to either sink or swim. From that moment forward, I became independent."
Berry then moved to New York and started taking acting classes, but her savings from
modeling lasted only three months. After her mother once again refused to send her money,
they didn't speak for a year because Berry was so resentful. The future star ended up
sleeping at a homeless shelter, but she refused to go back home. So she figured
it out by getting work as a waitress and then a bartender and then moving forward from there.
"I never dared dream that big dream."
After months of struggling, Berry got a lucky break in 1989 when she was cast in Living Dolls,
a spin-off of the hit sitcom Who's the Boss? But she had no idea that one bad
day on set would lead to her spending a week in a coma and receiving a diagnosis
that would transform her life. As she explained to the Daily Mail in 2005,
"I felt I needed energy but I didn't even have a minute to
pop out and get a chocolate bar. I didn't really know what was wrong."
Berry tried to make it through the day, but she fainted and woke up in
the hospital one week later. As soon as she could understand what was happening,
doctors broke the news that she had diabetes and would need daily insulin shots. As she recalled,
"They told me I might lose my eyesight, or I could lose my legs. I was scared to death."
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Berry was very careful about quarantining, and she's
had to deal with the fact that her diabetes makes her more likely to get broken bones.
Throughout her career, Berry has endured speculation about a horrible incident
in which a boyfriend allegedly hit her hard enough that she permanently lost 80 percent
of the hearing in her left ear. Berry has refused to name him, although she told People
Magazine in 1996 that he was a well-known person in Hollywood. As she explained,
"I left so fast there were skid marks. It never happened to me before — or since."
Berry also insisted that it hadn't been an abusive
relationship before that point. As she noted to The New York Times in 1995,
"Could you please make it real clear that this was a one-time
thing with a guy I was dating and the minute he hit me I was out of there?
I don't like the perception that I'm this passive, battered woman."
Berry's first husband, retired baseball player David Justice, has publicly voiced his frustration
over the public assuming that he was the one who hit her. As he told People Magazine in 2015,
"For so many years, there has been this cloud upon the guys who were associated with Halle
back then … Not only did David Justice not do that, David Justice never hit her, period."
"If it was me, then say it.
Say it. Say it. You see? But she can't say it, because she knows it wasn't."
Meanwhile, R&B singer Christopher Williams, who also dated Berry,
has both denied that it was him and alleged that it was actor Wesley Snipes instead.
Halle Berry first spotted David Justice when he played in an MTV celebrity game baseball in 1992,
and they were then married less than a year later. But their union didn't last,
as they divorced in 1997. Berry in particular was emotionally devastated
by the split. She even considered committing suicide and almost went
through with it. In a 2002 interview with Barbara Walters, she revealed,
"As I sat [in my car] sort of waiting for it to happen,
it's almost like I had a flash of that good angel and the bad angel on the shoulder."
Berry experienced a feeling of someone telling her not to do it.
That voice belonged to her mother. As the actress explained to Parade,
"I was sitting in my car, and I knew the gas was coming when
I had an image of my mother finding me. She sacrificed so much for her children,
and to end my life would be an incredibly selfish thing to do."
Berry resolved to work on rediscovering her sense
of self and promised herself that she would never again be a coward.
"I mean, you really know how to pick 'em."
"I know. If there's a loser in any town."
"You'd have found him."
"I used to find them."
James Bond films are known for their impressive stunts, but one of those stunts got a little out
of control on the set of 2002's Die Another Day. Berry played NSA agent Jinx Johnson,
and she ended up needing surgery after debris hit her in the eye during a scene
where Pierce Brosnan's James Bond takes down a helicopter. She was rushed to a nearby hospital
and doctors were able to save her from any permanent damage after a 30-minute surgery.
Berry's bad luck continued the following year when she lost weeks of work after her Gothika
co-star Robert Downey Jr. broke her arm by grabbing her the wrong way while shooting a
scene. Gothika is a supernatural thriller set in a psychiatric hospital, and the accident
happened during a regular conversation scene rather than any stunt-filled sequence. Downey
did address the incident and apologize publicly, but Berry was reportedly still upset with him for
not reaching out to her. As a source close to her claimed to the National Enquirer in 2012,
"She didn't think he was sorry enough. He didn't even send flowers.
Whenever she sees him in town, she won't talk to him."
Halle Berry's second marriage didn't fare much better than her first. In 2002,
her then-husband, R&B singer Eric Benét, admitted to infidelities and went to
rehab for sex addiction in 2002. As he confessed to People Magazine in 2005,
"We all know I cheated. It was out there. It's a betrayal. But I never did have sexual
intercourse with anyone while I was with Halle. Going into rehab was presented to
me by her mother that in order for the marriage to have a shot, this is what you need to do."
After 35 days in the program, the couple reunited,
but they ultimately couldn't overcome Berry's loss of trust. As Benét recalled,
"We tried to rediscover this groove of feeling comfortable and safe and trustworthy in the
relationship. I was very much in love with my wife [...] Halle came into the
relationship with her issues and I came into the relationship definitely with my issues."
Benét also blamed the tabloid media's scrutiny for aggravating the situation. As he put it,
"It was like throwing gasoline on this fire that was already pretty hard to control."
Berry later told Parade Magazine,
"We were in sex rehab after one year. I wish I had left then, but I was putting everyone's
needs before mine. If I hadn't gone through the first breakup and made that promise to myself,
this would have leveled me. I would have walked into moving traffic."
"I found out there was woman after woman after woman after woman after woman."
Berry's relationship with model Gabriel Aubry resulted in a child, but it also crashed and
burned on a very public stage. As reported by TMZ, their dramatic custody fight began
when Berry tried to move their daughter Nahla to France. Then in 2012, Aubry got
into a fistfight with Berry's then-fiance Olivier Martinez, which reportedly resulted
in Aubry getting a fractured rib, bruises on his face, and cuts that needed stitches.
Their courtroom battles continued when Aubry decided to fight for child support despite
Berry's criticisms of him as a parent. She reportedly told the court that he'd used
racial slurs towards her and described how he'd changed their daughter's hair
by lightening and straightening it. As she testified in court,
"I strongly feel that Gabriel's same underlying attitude is at the root in
the changes, which only he could have been causing to our daughter's hair."
Despite the accusations of racism, Aubry still ended up receiving $16,000 a month
from Berry. This bill was cut in half in 2021 after Berry argued that it was extortionate.
Halle Berry has been publicly open about the racism she's endured throughout her
career. As she explained to The New York Times in 1995,
"I fight for roles. I want the same shot as everyone else. But I never
even got the chance to read for Silence of the Lambs or Intersection or Indecent
Proposal. The excuse is that a black woman would change what the movie was all about."
Berry also described a time that she pursued the role of a park ranger. As she recalled,
"We kept pushing and pushing until finally the studio called my agent and said, 'We don't know if
a park ranger would be Black.' Hello? It's 1995. But this is the kind of mindset I'm up against."
After she became the first woman of color to win the Academy Award for Lead Actress in 2002,
Berry thought the tide had turned. As she told Barbara Walters that year,
"I was always a Black woman first and somehow that had a negative connotation.
That always frustrated me and angered me, and now I feel like I've beat that."
"Do you have it all?"
"I sure feel like I do."
Two decades later, however, Berry considered her historic Oscar win
heartbreaking in hindsight. As she put it to V Magazine,
"I question, at times, what did it mean if anything really at all?"
She expressed her disappointment that no Black
woman had won the same award again since, as she added,
"Well, it just lets us know that there's still work to be done."
Although Halle Berry had sworn that she would never get married again
after her experiences with David Justice and Eric Benét, she eventually did tie the
knot one more time in 2013 to French actor Olivier Martinez. But just two years later,
she was announcing another divorce. As they explained in a statement to People Magazine,
‎"We move forward with love and respect for one another and the shared focus of
what is best for our son. We wish each other nothing but happiness in life."
But the situation might have been more acrimonious than the statement made it seem, as the court case
was still unresolved years later. In 2017, Berry opened up about her turbulent love
life during a Q&A session at an event held by Entrepreneur Magazine. As she admitted,
"I have learned to deal with three failed marriages, which has not been easy,
especially when there's children involved [...] We go in there with that hope,
so when it falls apart it feels like a huge failure and a huge disappointment."
Berry also admitted that she often felt a lot of guilt over her relationships, as she explained,
"I've suffered a lot of pain and anguish."
But she also insisted that she received important lessons from each of her marriages, as she noted,
"For that, I'm grateful. But it has been hard. It's been a difficult part of my life."
If you or someone you know is dealing with domestic abuse,
you can call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1−800−799−7233.
You can also find more information, resources, and support at their website.
If you or anyone you know is having suicidal thoughts, please call the National Suicide
Prevention Lifeline by dialing 988 or by calling 1-800-273-TALK (8255).