The ’90s blessed us with an array of unforgettable beauties who graced our screens and stole our hearts. Listed among those beauties was Maia Campbell, daughter of best-selling author Bebe Moore Campbell and architect Tiko Campbell.
Maia was so breathtaking that a young Tyrese Gibson chose her to be the love interest in the video for his Billboard chart-topping and Grammy-nominated song, “Sweet Lady.”
For five seasons, from 1995-1999, Campbell starred alongside LL Cool J, Alfonso Ribeiro, Debbie Allen, and Kim Wayans in the hit UPN series, “In The House.” In 1998 the young star was diagnosed with bipolar disorder. Two years later she gave birth to a daughter — Elizabeth Elisha Gutierrez.
Since the actress’s diagnosis, Maia’s story became more and more heartbreaking as she refused to take her psychiatric medication and her condition went downhill. Maia turned to drug usage, and over the years, she emerged in viral videos appearing disheveled and out of sorts. In 2017, her “In the House” co-star LL Cool J sent a call-out to fans for help reaching Campbell in hopes that he could offer her support. Unfortunately, she denied his assistance.
Over 20 years of struggles with addiction and untreated bipolar disorder stripped the bronze-skinned Spelmanite of her glory. But not all of her glory has been lost. Just as Maia inherited her movie star good looks from her mother, it seems that her daughter Elizabeth has inherited hers. Fans who remember the actress from her four-year stint as Tiffany Warren on “In the House” have flooded her comments on Elizabeth Elisha’s Instagram page, gobsmacked at how much she resembles her mother in better days.
While the 23-year-old doesn’t post much, her last post to celebrate Valentine’s Day made fans do a double-take.
“Beautiful just like your Mom,” one comment read, while another wrote, “Omg, you look just like your mom.”
A third comment said, “I knew you would be gorgeous because you’re mom,” while someone said that she and her mother could be “twins.”
One of her most recent posts shows Elizabeth Elisha wearing her hair bone straight, in a look similar to her mom’s. A few of her followers were split, writing, “You look like your mother. Gorgeous,” and “You look just like ya Grandma.”
Elizabeth Elisha was introduced to the world as a 12-year-old alongside her mother on a 2012 episode of “Iyanla, Fix My Life” on OWN.
On the show, it was revealed that in 2001, Maia stopped taking her medication for her bipolar disorder and lost custody of the then-toddler and has been living with her father and Maia’s ex-husband Elias Gutierrez, whom she married in 1998.
The segment also showed the pre-teen, who revealed that sometimes she gets sad, desperately hoping her mother would get better and work through her sickness so that they could see each other more.
“ I hope that you get healthier so we can be together more,” the young girl says. “And [I want you to know] everything will be alright and that it comes really fast and sooner.”
“I’ll always love you,” she added.
Despite her promise to get better, videos floating on social media show that as recently as May 2020, Maia had been in trouble with the law in Atlanta, stemming from hanging out with an illegal street racing crew. She was named as one of 44 people arrested in connection to the dangerous sport, according to 11 Alive.
The Atlanta Police Department released her mug shot, revealing her once mid-back black naturally curly hair, chopped off into a bushy ponytail.
It seems that that beautiful little girl has grown into a happy and healthy young lady, resembling also her grandmother.
A series of events led the once-young actress, who starred with Tupac Shakur and Janet Jackson in the film “Poetic Justice,” to spiral out of control.
In 2006, Campbell’s mother, New York Times bestselling author and founding member of the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill, died from brain cancer. The two had been estranged and never reconciled before Moore Campbell’s death.
Ellis Gordon Jr., her stepfather, released a statement at the time that expressed how the illness impacted the entire family.
“As a family, we have been struggling with Maia in her illness for quite some time,” he said in remarks shared with Essence magazine. “We continue to hold fast to our faith and hope that someday she will realize that healing will begin when she decides to reach out and accept the help and treatment that have been offered to her.”
