Taraji P. Henson may have ended her engagement with former NFL player Kelvin Hayden, but the award-winning actress is not letting that stop her from living her best life.
During an Nov. 20 interview with “Entertainment Tonight” host Kevin Frazier two days ahead of hosting Sunday night’s American Music Awards show, the actress revealed that she decided to end her two-year engagement following a girls trip to Mexico for her 50th birthday. Despite having to make such a difficult decision, Henson said she is doing “much better, let’s put it that way.”
The “Hidden Figures” star said she and the former pro football cornerback had tried couple’s therapy to save their relationship to no avail before they ultimately called it quits. They got engaged in May 2018 after two years of dating.
Henson said she started to view life through a different lens during her trip and started to feel as though she was “slipping.” “So I was like, ‘You know what I am not going to do is let 50 happen to me,’” the actress explained. She continued, “I am going to get control of this mentally and not be like, ‘You are getting old, don’t nobody care, you ain’t working,’ Well, duh, no one is working, it is COVID. So I felt that coming.”
The “Empire” star said she doesn’t “have those low lows anymore,” thanks to her trainer and a new attitude. “So, anybody out there that might be going through this darkness, literally, working out, it really works,” she explained.
While speaking about her split during an appearance on “The Breakfast Club” morning show in October, Henson emphasized the importance of internal happiness separate from a romantic relationship. “My happiness is not his responsibility, and his is not mine. We have to first learn how to make ourselves happy, to make each other happy,” the actress said at the time.
She added, “So when one person is taking on the weight of the entire relationship, it’s never going to work. You have to show up. Yes, you want to be understanding, but you can’t lose yourself in that understanding. You have to still stand up for yourself and be there for yourself, but it’s hard to do if the other person isn’t doing that either.” Check out Taraji P. Henson speaking on that around the 18-minute mark.
