Brian Austin Green is revisiting a rarely discussed relationship from the height of his ’90s fame—and explaining why it hit a nerve he didn’t fully understand at the time.
Appearing on Funny Knowing You with Deon Cole, the former Beverly Hills, 90210 star said his brief romance with Tichina Arnold began with an ask that immediately unsettled him.
According to Green, Arnold was upfront from the very start that she wanted their relationship kept private. “She was very clear on Day 1 [that] nobody can know about this,” he said.
While the request may have seemed simple, Green admitted it landed much heavier than expected. Looking back, he described the moment as setting off a trigger in him, explaining that it tapped into deeper feelings of insecurity he was already carrying at the time.
“I have someone who I’m attracted to who’s telling me like, ‘You can’t tell anybody,’” he explained. “I think for me, like it really triggered something like, ‘Oh, OK, I’m not good enough for any of this. You don’t even want your friends to know that you’re hanging out with me.’”
Green said he was in his early 20s and still navigating identity, acceptance, and belonging—both personally and professionally. Being told to hide a relationship made him feel as though he wasn’t enough on his own.
“So, I was really insecure,” he said, adding that the secrecy made him question his value in the dynamic. That emotional response, he explained, quietly shifted how he viewed the relationship from then on.
Even after Arnold became more comfortable being open about their connection, Green said Arnold's mindset had already changed. “I think somewhere in my mind, I had that subconscious switch of like, ‘Oh, this isn’t a real relationship,’” he said. In hindsight, he believes the early secrecy prevented things from ever starting on healthy ground.
Green also shared context about where his life was at during that period. While starring as David Silver on 90210, he was deeply immersed in hip-hop culture and spent much of his time in spaces where that community thrived.
“Hip-hop was my world,” he said, noting that he often dated Black women simply because those were the people he connected with socially and creatively. Cole joked that Green was “always the Blackest person on 90210,” prompting laughter from the actor.
She described him as a “really, really nice guy” and said the relationship ended because she didn’t see a long-term future. “You’re not gonna end up with a Black woman,” she recalled telling him. “You’re gonna share your riches and your legacy with someone white. And so I’m getting off this train.”
Arnold framed the experience as clarifying rather than painful. “It was a great experience,” she said, calling Green “a good human being” and explaining that dating him helped her better understand herself.
She also made her attraction clear. “I really love Black men,” Arnold said, citing everything from chemistry to instinct. The relationship, she noted, confirmed what already felt true to her.
Green said there’s no lingering tension between them now. He said they’ve since talked it out—and that he still "has love" for Arnold today.