Halle Berry fans pulled out their best rescue wigs and assembled like the X-Men to defend the iconic actress after her ex, David Justice, revealed he wanted a divorce because she “didn’t cook or clean.”
If you’re wondering who asked for this information nearly 30 years after the split, we have Matt Barnes to thank. The baseball champ recently appeared on All The Smoke, and we ended up with all the tea about his relationship with Halle… even though it’s been cold for decades. Although many praised the episode as Matt’s best interview, the Halle-hating highlights have social media in shambles. Is he really “bitter” and bashing Halle over sexist expectations or full of remorse and regret about bad decisions? The answer seemingly depends on who you ask and whether they’re old enough to have been outside in the ’90s.
David was a top star in Major League Baseball when he and Halle formed one of the hottest celebrity couples of the early ’90s. They married in 1993, around the height of his career, but it didn’t last long. During the interview, the retired baller revealed why he wanted to call it quits three years later. He explained that he didn’t think Halle was “motherly” enough because she didn’t “cook or clean” like his own “traditional” mom.
“My knowledge and my understanding, my wisdom around relationships just wasn’t vast. So I’m looking at my mom — and I’m a Midwest guy — so, in my mind, I’m thinking a wife at that time should cook, clean, [be] traditional, you know? Then I’m thinking, ‘Okay, if we have kids, is this the woman I want to have kids with and build a family with?’ At that time, as a young guy — she don’t cook, don’t clean, don’t really seem motherly, and then we started having issues,” the baseball All-Star recalled.
Yikes! No wonder David was looking for a mother figure because he admitted both lovebirds had some maturing to do when it came to relationships. “You’re petty when you’re young,” he noted. Several comments dragged him for marrying a woman who wasn’t compatible with his “maid” matrimony goals. He admitted that they didn’t really plan out a future after only five months together, and the marriage wasn’t even his idea. Halle was the one who proposed, and David agreed, despite his uncertainty.
“I said okay, but I don’t know if my heart was really into it. But I didn’t want to make her feel bad and say no, you know, or [if] I was just in the moment. We were vibing. It was the honeymoon phase,” he confessed.
Why was he expecting a traditional wife from a rising star so ambitious that she popped the question herself after less than six months? Communication is key, but we all learn that the hard way.
The couple separated in 1996 and divorced in 1997. Countless comments are dragging the MVP player as a “nobody” who tried to humble Halle while she was securing the bigger bag, but that’s not the case. During the relationship, his contracts rivaled the salaries of many A-list actors at the time, and he was already a household name.
“Really, she didn’t have any money,” he claimed about funding their lifestyle leading up to the divorce.
Still, the Losing Isaiah ingenuewas well on her way to the heights of Hollywood. Leading up to the marriage, Halle had appeared on a few hit TV shows and landed some breakout roles in Jungle Fever, Boomerang, and The Last Boy Scout. While her hubby hoped to have a housewife in the mid-’90s, Halle was booked and busy with back-to-back acting gigs.
Check out what David Justice thinks could’ve saved his marriage, how he fumbled Halle Berry, and the domestic abuse rumors after the flip.
David Justice Admits He Fumbled His Relationship With Halle Berry, Says Therapy Could’ve Saved The Day
Although David Justice said they never struggled with “major issues” like infidelity, the couple drifted apart as their careers also diverged. In hindsight, he suspects therapy could’ve made the marriage work.
“We spent a lot of time apart because she was doing movies in this country, that country. And we honestly probably could have made it if I knew about therapy. If we knew about therapy, we probably could have made it,” he said.
“We never had any major issues like that. It’s just… because I was young and had only been in one real relationship before her,” David confessed.
The issues that really “hurt” Justice came from the fallout of the split. He blamed her team for painting him as a villain and Halle for never correcting the assumption that he was the ex who abused her. She did file a restraining order against him amid the divorce; however, that was for harassment and didn’t specify abuse.
The Catwoman star revealed an unnamed ex struck her in the head so hard that she lost her hearing. Since Justice was her most high-profile relationship when she spoke out about it, the world assumed it was him. David said she was “dead wrong” because she “let the world think” he abused her until she set the record straight in 2015.
It took David years to reflect on the relationship and empathize with Halle’s perspective.
“That girl really did love me, and I can see why she would be so mad at me,” he said about abruptly breaking her heart and basically ghosting her. “That had to be tough on her. I just wasn’t emotionally mature at that age to really truly understand the magnitude of how she was really feeling.”
“I would’ve did things different back then, too. When I left her, I didn’t talk to her no more. I didn’t even ease out. ‘Hey, I don’t want to be together no more.’ Gone!” he shared.
In context, David sees where he went wrong as a young, inexperienced sports star. He wouldn’t publicly bash Halle if he wanted to because he said his mama didn’t play that. And neither does the internet when it comes to Halle Berry!
Social media has already taken the soundbites and run with them. There seems to be major divides between people who knew sports and the ’90s firsthand and fans ready to ride for Halle at all times. Check out some of the reactions below.
Fortunately, both exes moved on to find their happily ever afters. David has been married to Rebecca Villalobos since 2001, and they have three children.
We all know Halle is living her best life with her photographer boo Van Hunt. She went on to make history as an Oscar-winning actress, the first Black leading lady in the James Bond franchise, and one of the highest-grossing and best-paid Black women in Hollywood.
What do you think about David Justice’s interview and the Halle Berry backlash?
