Halle Berry: 'Why I will never marry again'

IT was actually a simple and straightforward statement. And Halle Berry uttered it with extraordinary certainty in her usual elegant and understated demeanor. Yet, it had the effect of a roaring tsunami wave or shattering temblor. Berry, the object of affection for millions, announced to a recent Oprah audience that she "will never marry again," with the kind of conviction that left little room for doubt. Her level of conviction and passion removed the statement from the conventional comments of the bad-marriages club.

The Academy Award-winning actress, who is starring in the hit movie Catwoman, told EBONY that she is 100 percent serious and is convinced that she will never back down from that statement.

"It's sad but true," she says. "I will not marry again. There is no need."

Male fans need not despair, however. There'll be no more trousseaus or brooms to jump. But she still wants to share her life with a special man.

"I want love and I'll find it hopefully and have a committed relationship, but no more marriages," she explains. "I'm not banning men, and I'm not against relationships. I have just discovered after two failed marriages that probably marriage is not the way for me to go again. Putting on that dress and walking down the aisle is no longer of value to me. I want someone to come and stay and be there because he wants to, not because he has a piece of paper that says he has to."

She came to that conclusion after much soul-searching following the tabloid revelations about her husband, R&B singer Eric Benet, 33, and his alleged sexual addiction. The two are now in the process of divorcing. Benet's sexual addiction was detailed in a supermarket tabloid.

Initially, Berry, 37, was committed to supporting him and seeing the problem through because, after a bitter divorce from baseball slugger David Justice following their three-year marriage (1993-96), she explains she desperately wanted the marriage to work and ignored early signals that things were not exactly as they should be.

However, the issue of trust in Benet wouldn't go away and she realized she could no longer avoid it and filed for divorce. In spite of the "problem," as she defines it, she quickly admits that she still deeply loves and respects Benet.

"Honestly, I hold no negativity," she offers. "I have a lot of love for Eric, and I always will. We shared a lot together. I have a lot of love and respect for the way he dealt with his issues. For once, somebody didn't blame it on me. He really dealt with it and is trying to deal with that situation. And that's admirable."

It was recently revealed in numerous media outlets that Benet is asking that Berry pay his legal bills, spousal support and has challenged the prenuptial agreement the couple signed. Berry's office did not issue a response.

In spite of the couple's difficulties, the burning question that immediately begs, or rather screams, to be asked is how a man could stray from a marriage to the woman considered to be one of the most beautiful in the country. She politely demurs, preferring not to focus on questions she can't answer or on her stellar physical attributes.

She doesn't have to focus on those attributes. Fans and Hollywood observers have been doing that for her for more than a decade.

Still, she is always flattered that people go ballistic over her beauty, whether professionally or physically. "I'm always flattered by the compliment, but I do get much more excited when someone comments on my work, or who I really am--my spirit, my character, not the physical. I have nothing to do with the physical. I take no credit for that."

Far more meaningful are the accolades for such works as Monster's Ball, which crowned her career with the Academy Award, the hit miniseries Queen, the HBO movie Introducing Dorothy Dandridge, which brought her an Emmy Award and the megahit films X Men, Die Another Day and the psychological thriller Gothika.

"Those things are just more meaningful when people compliment me on those things," she says. "It's not that I'm tired of the beautiful thing, but I don't take credit for that."

Those comments about her alluring looks and sculpted body will doubtless come to the forefront again this summer when fans see her in the much-anticipated Catwoman. In the starring role of that movie, Berry is cast as Patience Philips, a meek graphic artist who stumbles onto an evil secret. She is killed by corporate villains and comes back as Catwoman. The movie also features Benjamin Bratt as a police detective who eventually becomes her love interest. Sharon Stone is the evil wife of a corporate head.

To get her already-in-shape body prepared for the grueling stunts of Catwoman, Berry spent eight consecutive months working out.

"For the last 10 years I've pretty much tried to stay in shape, but for that movie I had to go to a whole new level," she reveals. "For that role, I had to put on muscle mass. I had to be lean and sinewy [with exposed] muscles and had to be more cat-like. That was really a challenge because I had never put on muscles like that before."