Despite his onscreen triumphs, which include smash hit TV shows, movies,
and an Oscar nomination, this A-Lister's personal life has been marred by scandal and tragedy.
Here are some things you may not know about Terrence Howard's tragic real-life story.
When Howard was just two years old, his father, Tyrone Howard, took his three
children and pregnant wife to see Santa Claus at an Ohio department store. While waiting, the
youngsters' father exchanged words with another man, who accused him of cutting in front of him
in the line. According to a report about the incident in The New York Times, accounts of what
happened next were varied, but culminated with Tyrone stabbing the other man with a nail file.
The man lost his life, and the incident came to be known as "the Santa Line Slaying."
Tyrone was sent to prison for 11 months. In a 2015 interview with Rolling Stone,
Howard looked back on that horrific childhood trauma, saying,
"I was standing next to my father, watching. Then stuff happened so quickly - blood was on
the coats, on our jackets - and then my dad's on a table and then my dad is gone to prison."
As Howard told Rolling Stone, his mother was just 15 when he was born. After the delivery,
his skin appeared so yellow that doctors feared he had jaundice and placed him in an incubator,
where the newborn spent the next three days.
As he grew older, the yellow tinge of his skin remained. Howard claims
he was given the nickname "High Yellow" in what he called his "ghetto" neighborhood,
where he was regularly bullied and beaten for it. He recalled kids saying about him,
"Let's smack him and see how long it takes him to turn red."
When his uncle watched him get beaten up at age 13,
he took the youngster under his wing and taught him how to box.
The tables then turned on the bullies who had made his childhood miserable.
"It's karma, baby."
Howard told the publication,
"I was the pretty boy, so people didn't think
I could defend myself. It didn't end up being a good day for them."
In a 2005 interview with The Boston Globe, Howard recalled his aunt inspiring him to consider
becoming an actor. But he feared his acting career was over before it even started when, at age 18,
he was diagnosed with Bell's palsy, leaving half of his face paralyzed for about a year.
According to Howard, a doctor told him there was just a five percent chance that
he would regain feeling in the part of his face afflicted by paralysis.
So he decided to take some wires from a radio transformer and attempted to jolt
his paralyzed face with electric shocks in order to "rejuvenate" the nerves. He told The Globe,
"I got scar burn marks all over my face, but about eight months later I had most of the
movement back. Still, my lip won't go all the way up, and one side of my face is stronger,
so I'm conscious of it when I watch my movies."
Howard's relationships with his first two wives were tumultuous,
to say the least. His second wife, Michelle Ghent, filed for divorce after less than
a year of marriage in 2011. According to TMZ, Ghent later made some shocking claims
in a court filing requesting a restraining order, including that Howard once, quote,
"slugged [her] across the face and neck," and threatened to hurl her from a balcony.
The outlet also summarized Ghent's claims that Howard, quote,
"[hit] her in the face and chip[ped] her tooth with his wedding ring," and allegedly told her,
"I'll hit a woman quicker than I'd hit a man."
In 2013, Ghent and Howard were discussing possible reconciliation when an argument broke out.
Things escalated, with Ghent allegedly blasting Howard and two of his family members with mace.
She claimed he then struck her repeatedly. TMZ also reported
separately that Ghent was sporting a black eye when she went to court
to seek another restraining order against Howard, which was granted.
Howard slightly elaborated on the altercation in 2015, telling Rolling Stone,
"She was trying to Mace me, and you can't see anything so all you can do is try to
bat somebody away, and I think that something caught her. But I wasn't trying to hit her."
Back in 2000, Howard spent the night in jail when he was arrested after an incident on a flight.
As ABC News reported, Howard allegedly grabbed a flight attendant by the wrist, and yelled at
her when she asked him to take his seat. He was arrested when the plane landed in Cleveland, Ohio.
A few years later, Howard had an altercation with a couple in a Pennsylvania diner.
According to Philadelphia magazine, Howard reportedly became agitated when the hostess
began to bring the couple to their table, so he interfered and asked why they were being
seated first. When the couple explained they were ahead of him in line, he allegedly said,
"F--- you, I wasn't talking to you."
The actor assaulted them both instead, punching one in the face and the other
in the chest. He reportedly continued hitting one of them on the floor until
they lost consciousness. Howard then fled and attempted to disguise himself.
When the police tracked him down, Howard copped to the assaults, but insisted he was
acting in self-defense. After initially being charged with simple assault and harassment,
Howard eventually pleaded guilty to a charge of disorderly conduct.
Howard's contentious divorce from his second wife, Michelle Ghent,
led to years of legal battles over spousal support. In his 2015 interview with Rolling Stone,
he revealed the divorce had left him, quote, "broke as can be," and said,
"Because of my ex, [my Empire paychecks are] being held for
garnishment. [...] There's nothing worse than being a broke movie star."
"You know how hard that is?"
"Ain't nothing ever been easy for us, Lucious, you know that."
In 2019, the Daily News reported that a judge set the exes' legal dispute to rest, declaring Howard
had to pay Ghent over $260,000 in unpaid spousal support and an additional almost $1.1 million.
The same outlet later reported that Howard was also ordered to pay Ghent's legal fees,
amounting to over $900,000. Once the full amount in arrears was determined,
the judge planned to issue an "assignment order" that would,
in effect, garnish his wages, a response to the fact that Empire was about to conclude
its sixth and final season and he would no longer be receiving that regular paycheck.
Howard appeared in arguably his biggest movie ever when he was hired to play
War Machine in 2008's Iron Man. Not only was Howard the first actor hired,
he was also the highest-paid, with Rolling Stone reporting he earned $3.5 million with
the promise of $5 million more if a sequel was produced. He told the magazine that he
offered to cut his salary by $1 million if they hired Robert Downey Jr., as the
studio was allegedly skittish due to Downey's well-documented issues with substance abuse.
When Iron Man 2 was officially green-lit, Howard claims he received word that his role was being
reduced, as was the salary promised. He said his agent fired off obscenities at studio
representatives and hung up the phone on them. The next day, Howard's role went to Don Cheadle.
After Downey allegedly wouldn't return his calls, Howard left a message for him, saying,
"Look, man, I need the help that I gave you."
According to Howard, Downey never replied. In an apparent reference to Downey's
extremely lucrative subsequent Marvel film salaries and backend deals, Howard claimed,
"[Downey] got the millions I was supposed to get. [...] I've actually given him $100 million."
"Am I gonna come back and be War Machine, I think they could have
a huge franchise off of it, but f---em."
In 2013, Howard got married for the third time when he walked down the aisle with Miranda Pak.
Court documents obtained by Entertainment Tonight indicated that the couple had secretly separated
in August 2014, with Pak filing for divorce in March 2015. The divorce was finalized that July,
a month after the couple welcomed their first child together.
Fast-forward to December 2018, when Howard shared a video on Instagram
in which he proposes to Pak - three years after their divorce. He tells Pak,
"It took me 45 years to find you. But now that I have you in my 50th year,
I will spend the rest of eternity at your side."
In a 2015 Rolling Stone interview that was conducted amid the secret divorce,
Pak explained that she and Howard, quote, "have an amazing connection," but didn't
exactly have a lot of praise to offer her husband. Describing Howard as "so selfish," she admitted,
"He doesn't lift a finger [around the house]. [...] I probably leave him 30 times a month.
We don't have a normal life."
Howard's legal battle with his ex-wife Michelle Ghent dragged on for years,
and very publicly. Speaking to Entertainment Tonight after a 2015 hearing, the actor complained
about having his personal life "exposed" through the legal process. He lamented,
"Sad that this has to be in a public forum."
Meanwhile, Page Six reported that the actor's role on Empire was going to be reduced due to
Howard's ongoing high-profile legal troubles with his ex, which led to
her earlier allegations of domestic violence to resurface in the media. Howard's character would
be behind bars during that upcoming season, and an anonymous source told the outlet,
"What they are doing is two-fold. [...] You won't be seeing him in as many scenes."
The show's strategy, the source continued, was to bring in tons of guest stars and celebrity cameos,
so that, quote, "the average viewer won't realize it because there is so much going on."
The network, however, denied the source's claims. Fox declared in a statement to Page Six,
"Rumors that Terrence's role in Empire will be scaled back are patently untrue."
Howard has had some issues with the IRS, and in 2019 became the subject
of a criminal investigation for tax evasion. According to documents obtained by The Blast,
he, his wife Miranda Pak, and her company, Universal Bridges,
were under federal investigation for "possible financial crimes." Howard had reportedly hired
a criminal attorney, and had already had conversations with investigators.
Contacted by People magazine, the United States Attorney's Office in the Eastern
District of Pennsylvania would neither confirm nor deny that an investigation was underway.
Previously, The Blast reported on "official records" indicating that Howard owed more
than $143,000 in unpaid taxes for 2010, in addition to interest and penalties
for late payment of those taxes. Those records stated that if Howard did not settle his debt,
his property and assets could be seized by the government.
Howard also had some earlier troubles with the taxman; in 2010, he was hit with a lien for
$1.1 million in unpaid taxes - and another lien in 2006 for more than $600,000. Both of those liens,
however, had apparently been settled by the time the alleged criminal investigation was launched.
In addition to conflicts with ex-wives and the Internal Revenue Service,
Howard also had some issues with his landlord. In 2013,
TMZ reported that he was sued for back rent after being evicted from an apartment in New York City.
According to court documents obtained by the tab, Howard's lease ended in November 2012,
but he never moved out, remaining in the place until he was formally evicted in May 2013.
The New York Post offered more detail, courtesy of Lawrence Wolf,
the attorney representing the landlord who had rented the apartment to Howard.
Wolf claimed that Howard owed about $55,000 in back rent, and added,
"He's just another deadbeat. [...] It's a lot
of money. There's no dispute. The issue is strictly the nonpayment."
A subsequent report from TMZ revealed that Howard was a no-show when the case went to court.
Since he didn't appear for the court date, the judge in the case ruled in the landlord's favor
by default. However, the judge didn't accept the landlord's figure of how much Howard owed,
and scheduled another hearing to determine the amount.
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