Halle Berry says she deliberately stepped away from dating and sex for years before finding love with boyfriend Van Hunt.
In a recent interview with The Times Magazine (as spotted by People), the Oscar winner said that before meeting Hunt she had not had sex in four years.
“I was solo and celibate for four years. I had to really sit myself down and be alone and grow and reflect and realize my value,” said the 59-year-old. “I had decided if the right person doesn't come, I will be alone. And that's okay. I'm enough by myself. I've got my children. I have my career. That's more than enough. I have an embarrassment of riches.”
When asked if a relationship would have simply been a bonus, Berry said, “Yes. And the icing had better be exactly what I want or l'm not going to eat that cake. Because it's too costly.”
Berry's resolve followed her 2016 divorce from Olivier Martinez, her third, after which she focused on herself before eventually meeting Hunt in 2020.
“I would not have been ready for him before. I had to go through fire and burn to get to the point of appreciating a person like him,” she said. “I was a moth to a flame. I no longer am that person.”
In a 2024 interview with Marie Claire, Berry described the break as a “sabbatical to understand me.”
She said at the time, "I created my career. I was intentional about that. I knew what I was going to do, and I did it. But I had never been that intentional with my relationships. I was loosey goosey with that. You have to be clear with the universe [or] any old thing will find you."
She added that the "minute I started to feel like I understood myself and what I had been doing wrong" was when Hunt entered her life.
"It took me a minute to get it right, but the nature of the way this happened, I have a real belief that this is it,” she continued. “This is my person."
Hunt revealed in June 2025 that he had proposed and their engagement was on an indefinite hold.
Berry addressed marriage on Today, saying, “I've been married three times. Van has been married once. And so, no, we don't feel like we have to get married to validate our love in any way. We don't.”
She added, “I think we will get married just because out of the people I've been married to, this is the person I should have married. And I feel like I should, we should get married. But it's not because we feel like we have to. I think it's something that we would like to do just because we want that expression.”
Berry shares 17-year-old daughter Nahla with ex-boyfriend Gabriel Aubry and 11-year-old son Maceo with ex-husband Oliver Martinez, whom she was married to from 2013 to 2015. She was also married to former MLB player David Justice from 1993 to 1997. She then married musician Eric Benét from 2001 to 2005.
Hunt also has a son from a prior relationship.