David Justice is breaking his silence on what really happened during his short-lived marriage to Halle Berry.
The former MLB star sat down with Matt Barnes on the All the Smoke podcast on Thursday, August 7, and shared the story behind their split – including the moment he started questioning if Berry was the person he wanted to start a family with.
Justice, now 59, said that early on, things between him and Berry, 58, were smooth — still in the honeymoon phase — until about five months after they tied the knot in 1993. That’s when thoughts of having kids made him reevaluate the relationship. “My knowledge and my understanding, my wisdom around relationships just wasn’t vast,” he explained. “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?”
He admitted he began to wonder: “If we have kids, is this the woman I want to have kids with and build a family with?” According to Justice, Berry “didn’t cook, didn’t clean, didn’t really seem motherly,” and that’s when their issues started.
The couple first met in May 1992, and Justice revealed that Berry proposed to him just five months later. “I said OK, because I couldn’t say no. Who’s going to say no at that time? I don’t know if my heart was really into it, but I didn’t want to make her feel bad and say no, or [maybe] I was just in the moment,” he said.
The real cracks appeared when their careers began pulling them apart. Berry was filming movies across different countries, while Justice’s baseball schedule kept him on the road. “We honestly probably could have made it if I knew about therapy. If we knew about therapy, we probably could have made it,” he admitted. Despite their growing differences, he insists there were no major explosive fights – just a lack of understanding and maturity on his part.
Justice filed for divorce in 1996, and the split became public the following year. At the time, the former Atlanta Braves outfielder says they didn’t face much negative press until he made the decision to walk away.
Now remarried to Rebecca Villalobos Justice since 2001 and a father of three, Justice reflects on his relationship with Berry without bitterness – but with the belief that things might have been different if they had the tools to communicate better.
Berry hasn’t responded to Justice’s recent comments, but she has previously addressed public speculation about her relationships. In a February appearance on The Drew Barrymore Show, she fired back at the “can’t keep a man” narrative. “Who’s to say I want to keep a man? I don’t want to keep the wrong man… When you find that you make a mistake – we all make mistakes – we have a right to say, ‘Oh God, this was a mistake. Let me start again.’”
Berry is now in a relationship with musician Van Hunt. The two went public in September 2020, and in June, Hunt revealed he had proposed – though Berry hasn’t officially accepted yet. “It’s just out there floating,” Hunt told Today.com. Berry has said she does see marriage in their future but only because they want to, not because they feel pressured.
Before Hunt, Berry was married to Olivier Martinez, with whom she shares her son Maceo-Robert, 11. She also has a daughter, Nahla, 17, from her relationship with Gabriel Aubry. And, of course, her first marriage was to Justice, followed by a second marriage to singer Eric Benét.
Nearly three decades after their whirlwind romance, Justice’s candid recollection offers a rare look into one of Hollywood’s most talked-about relationships of the 90s – and why it ultimately didn’t work out.
Jamie Wells has a knack for getting the inside scoop on Hollywood’s biggest stars and up-and-coming talent. With a sharp eye for industry trends and an ear for viral moments, Jamie covers everything from red-carpet events to behind-the-scenes drama in movies, TV, and celebrity culture.
