Halle Berry doesn't regret 'getting divorced three times' for the sake of her children
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Halle Berry is reflecting on her three divorces and the effects those splits had on her well-being.
The 58-year-old Oscar winner has been married thrice - to baseball star David Justice, singer Eric Benet, and French actor Olivier Martinez. However, all three of her marriages have concluded in divorce.
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But, the ‘Catwoman’ star doesn’t look at her divorces unfavorably, especially for her children’s sake.
Halle Berry believes children learn from watching their parents
Halle Berry - a mother of two - welcomed her daughter Nahla, 16, with ex Gabriel Aubry, and son Maceo, 10, with ex-husband Olivier Martinez.
During a small roundtable discussion following a private screening of her new thriller, ‘Never Let Go', Berry opened up in a candid discussion about how those past divorces made her stronger.
Berry claimed that those past setbacks not only made her stronger but also made her strong as a mother. She believes that since children learn from watching their parents, it is okay to be strong and make decisions that would reflect positively on one’s mental health.
The ‘Monster’s Ball’ actress shared in the discussion, per Today, “We all know as mothers, sometimes we have to make those hard decisions.”
“We have to do things. Sometimes it’s we have to get a divorce, OK? Because it’s like, ‘I can’t stay here. I’m going to die if I stay here'. And it’s happened to me three times,” admitted the Ohio native.
As a caring mother, Berry admitted that she wanted her children to imbibe in them the importance of “always daring to go my own way.”
She noted, “Even if it seems like I’m going the wrong way, I always go my own way. I’m uninfluenced by the outside. I always have my own opinions, and I do what I want to do.”
Berry also drew parallels with her life to her daughter Nahla, who recently went through a breakup.
‘The Union’ star claimed that she would want Nahla to see how her mother advocated for herself during those tiring times, while gushing at “how that’s enriched my life, daring to do things my way, staying authentic, staying myself, staying true to myself, even if that means getting divorced three times she says.”
She explained candidly, “Because none of them served me and none of them were the right things.
Berry continued, “But I had the courage to leave and face ridicule and face what everybody would say,” before adding, “You know, ‘She crazy', and, ‘Something must be wrong with her'. No. Crazy would have been to stay there and be unhappy. Now that's crazy, and I hope she's learned that.”
Berry shared some of her gathered knowledge with the moderator of the discussion, actress Keke Palmer as well.
Berry urged Palmer - who is a mother of a one-year-old son named Leodis - not to put herself in the backseat to support her child.
Berru told Palmer, “Don’t give up yourself, right?” before urging, “Stay Keke, because before you were mom, you were Keke. You were a woman before you were a mother. And you have to stay in touch with that because those kids are going to go. They’re going to let go.”
“That’s not a selfish thing to do; that is a selfless thing to do, because the better you are, the better mother you show up for them,” continued the ‘Swordfish’ star before adding, “Do you. Those kids are watching you. And they’re learning from watching you.”
Halle Berry is a self-proclaimed ‘mama bear’
Halle Berry, who is a self-proclaimed “mama bear,” shared during an interview with People that it was difficult to see her daughter suffering while going through a breakup.
The actress shared, "She just was in a thing and she got her heart broken," before adding, "Never gets easier.”
“It's just holding space knowing that this is all part of growing, right? We've all been there and knowing that in six months time, she's going to forget about it,” added the actress.
She continued, "But in this moment, it's the single most important thing to be rejected and have a breakup and she feels like she's dying. A little part of me is dying and I can't tell her that because she'll just say, 'Mom, you don't understand.'"
"So I just have to say, 'Yeah, this sucks, right? This sucks balls.' I know, and you're hurt. And I know I just have to sit in it with her and that's really hard to do,” added Berry.
