'King's Court' Star Holly Robinson Talks Keeping Marriage Sexy

Holly Robinson Peete continues to radiate beauty, confidence, and grace, noting that women of all ages have the right to do the same.

Just a few days shy of her 61st birthday, the actress chatted with Madamenoire about her latest role as the host of Kings Court, the Bravo spinoff of the hit Queens Court series hosted by Peete alongside her husband, Rodney Peete, where three celebrities date 21 men or women to find their person.

At the age of five, Peete made her television debut on Sesame Street alongside her late father, Matt Robinson, the first actor to portray the character of Gordon. Since then, she has built a notable legacy for herself as an actress, author, activist, wife, and mother, wearing many hats.

While Peete embraces the fact that Black doesn’t crack, she joked that it “does sag a little bit,” and explained the importance of the commitment to empowering oneself as one matures in age.

“It’s definitely a chore to continue to feel sexy and vibrant, because sometimes, I mean, I’m really blessed to have a husband who likes to tell me that I’m these things, but you have to believe them yourself, so that’s part of it,” she said during a phone conversation with Madamenoire. “It’s just self-love and a lot of giving yourself grace. I think there’s something to giving yourself grace and really enjoying who you are, especially at this big age of mine. I’m about to be 61, and I have to really go back over my life and think about all the things I’ve done and give myself love and grace. I think that’s how I continue to try to maintain any kind of feeling sexy, feeling vibrant. It comes from self-love.”

RELATED CONTENT: Holly Robinson Peete Responds To Australian Journalist Who Accused Florence Griffith Joyner Of Drug Use

On Keeping The Spark Alive With Her Hubby

The Peetes recently celebrated their 30th anniversary, and continue to serve as an example of healthy, Black love, primarily through their work on Queens Court and Kings Court, helping to guide participating bachelors and bachelorettes on their quest to find love. While she admits that she can be a “crazy Virgo wife,” Rodney is more of an easy-going kind of guy. Peete says that their secret sauce of love is allowing one another just to be.

“We do 20-second hugs,” she chimed. “No matter how mad we are with each other at any given moment, we stop and we hug each other, and then something happens, kind of pheromonally, where it kind of diffuses the conflict, and it’s really worked for us. It’s not always easy. You’ll be gritting your teeth through one to 10, but by the time you get to 11, 12, you start calming down and feeling like, ‘Okay, it really wasn’t  that deep.’”

When it comes to remaining fun and flirty, Peete says they keep things sexy with their twist on role-playing.

“We do meet up at places sometimes,” Peete revealed. “He’ll walk up to me like he’s picking me up at a bar, and I’ll be like, ‘Hey, what’s your name? You gotta wife?’ And we just try to be silly, because, when you’ve been together as long as we have, you have seasons of love.”

She continued, “Your first season, you just swing it from chandeliers. Everything is so amazing, and you’re just so goo-goo ga-ga, and then the second season, you’re settled in. It’s about the kids. The third season, which is what we’re in now, this third decade of our love, requires you to find ways to keep it fresh. So, sometimes we roll up into a cool restaurant or something. We’ll meet up and come separately and pretend like we’re meeting up on a date.”

Learning Things Along The Way

As a seasoned woman with wisdom under her belt, Peete says the most significant life lesson she learned later in her womanhood, which should’ve been applied in her younger years, is that you cannot pour from an empty cup.

“I’ve learned through being a caregiver for my dad, who had Parkinson’s when I was only 19, and my son, who had autism, so I was in the sandwich generation, but it’s about pouring into your own cup and making sure that your cup is full because you can’t pour from an empty cup,” the 21 Jump Street actress explained. “Make sure that you are as fulfilled as you need to be to take care of others.”

“We lose sight of that often because we’re so busy doing everything for everybody else, so as a busy woman, especially a busy Black woman, mom, just doing all the things, it’s so important that I find that time and that energy to dedicate to myself,” she continued. “For self-care, it doesn’t have to be some grand, fabulous trip to a spa. It could just be small moments. Even in the morning, I do a lot of self-affirmations. I love apps, and there are many good affirmation apps available. Before I even get out of bed, I just give myself sort of 7 to 10 minutes of reflective thought to set my intention for the day.”

Embracing Her ‘IDGAF’ Phase

Peete says that with age comes a lessening of the desire to appease others, and a way lessening of pining over the thoughts and opinions of others. She nodded to Halle Berry’s recent vocalization of her menopause journey as an example of how empowering it is to embrace the natural process of aging.

“They say it gets greater later, because you have all that wisdom that you’ve gone through and the mistakes you’ve made, the peaks and valleys, the things that you’ve done, the regrets you’ve left behind,” Peete concluded. “This is a time, especially as you get over 50. I don’t want ot say it’s the IDGAF phase, but it’s like you just don’t sweat, at least for me, I don’t sweat the small stuff anymore. I’m focused on who the people are who want me to win. Who are you surrounding yourself with? And so, you’re really creating your own reality and your own little bubble of space as you get older, but the days of us thinking that we are getting older are behind us. We’re not as cute anymore, and we can’t wear certain things. We can’t go to the beach and wear our little clothes, or even put on a little bikini; those days are over. I think we are all embracing ourselves so much better, in a way, especially black women, as we feel. Little, you know, lately more and more sort of threatened and not really represented. I think now is the time when we really pour into ourselves. We give ourselves love, and we surround ourselves with people who feed us and pour into us. And I just think it’s a really good time for us to be, you know, strong, beautiful, black women, who are not afraid to get older and wiser.”

Watch Holly Robinson Peete alongside her husband, Rodney Peete, as they support the kings in finding love on Bravo’s King’s Court. The whole season is available for streaming on Peacock now.

RELATED CONTENT: Nia Long, 54, Reveals The Secret To Aging Like A Fine Wine