Celebrities
Taraji P. Henson Was On Welfare to Support Son After Husband Died
Taraji and her son Marcel Henson
Reported by Nigel Boys
In a recent interview with PageSix, actress Taraji Penda Henson, best known for her roles in “Baby Boy” and “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,” talked frankly about her role as a widowed mother.
The 43-year-old Washington D.C.-born mother of Marcel Henson, married her high school sweetheart/her son’s father William Johnson. The Academy Award nominated actress said that when her son’s father was murdered in 1997, she went through a very difficult stage in her life. She adds that at that time, she had only $900 to her name.
Henson goes on to say that she was in her third year as a theatre major at Howard University, when she discovered she was pregnant by her boyfriend, but she never dropped out of school to have the baby. She adds that after Johnson was murdered, she went through the darkest time of her life and even ended up on welfare to support herself and her child.
According to the African-American actress, when she was nominated for Best Supporting actress in “Benjamin Button,” she figured she deserved a treat, so she blew her money on a new pair of Louboutin shoes. She added that her career is doing well, but she and Marcel still struggle and a big Los Angeles house seems like a mansion to them.
Bernice Gordon, her ever supporting mother, helped her after the death of her husband, said Henson. She added that she was her companion during the evening of the Oscar nominations, but she has now remarried and lives in Florida.
As for finding a new man in her life, the actress who plays Lauren, a successful single CEO in a new movie titled “Think Like a Man Too,” believes that her celebrity status is affecting her chances in the dating pool. She added, “Hard to maneuver when you’re in show business. It shrinks the search pool. I don’t want an actor. I want a life partner, a real one. I had a guy, but cut to the chase. He was starstruck. They fall for the lady on-screen.”
Henson concluded that if she wants to find a man who is not excessively preoccupied with personal adequacy, power or prestige, as she herself is, then she’ll probably have to find a man from another country, possibly off the Northern Continent.
