Source: Jerod Harris / Getty
Taraji P. Henson is healing.
The 50-year-old actress, who has her Facebook Watch series Peace of Mind with Taraji, opened up in an interview with Extra about the work she’s done to manage her mental health. She shared a revelation on the show recently about her experience with suicidal thoughts during the pandemic. She told the entertainment news show that therapy has helped her get through the day to day.
“Well, you know, you take each moment,” she said. “It’s not like I wake up every day and I’m happy, but thank God I’m, I’m in therapy… and because I’m in therapy, I can now identify when I’m about to start to tip down.”
Therapy has helped her cope with a lot, including her breakup with former fiancé Kelvin Hayden. But that doesn’t mean she’s completely up and moved on. When asked about whether or not she was keen to start dating again, she said that is a concern she currently cares little about.
“That’s the last thing I’m thinking about,” she said. “I don’t mean that in a negative way, but I’ve always been the type of woman that when I get out of a relationship, I need to process.”
“We were going to get married! That was five years of my life,” she added. “I don’t just go, ‘Ohhhh. Okay. Next.’ I can’t, and I’m not judging — that’s just my process.”
After speculation grew about the state of their engagement as their wedding date was pushed back more than once, and Henson celebrated her 50th without him in sight, she confirmed that they’d called it quits.
“I just turned 50 and you know, I haven’t said it yet, but it didn’t work out. And I tried,” she told The Breakfast Club last fall. “I said therapy. Let’s do the therapy thing. But if you’re both not on the same page with that, then you feel like you’re taking it on yourself. and that’s not a fair position for anybody to play in a relationship. My happiness is not his responsibility and neither is his mine. We have to first learn how to make ourselves happy. So when one person is taking on the weight of the entire relationship, it’s never going to work. And yes, you have 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. And that’s hard to do if the other person isn’t doing their part either. That’s why relationships are so difficult. They’re difficult.”
Henson and Hayden went public with their relationship in 2017 when they had already been dating quietly for two years. At the time, she was beaming over the love they shared.
“You know, I’m not the type to blast my personal business, but I think that it’s important for people to know that I’m happy,” she told the Yes, Girl! podcast in 2017. “I’m very, very happy.”
