You can have it all: Vanessa L. Williams has an NBA hunk husband, a new child and a new lease on life - Cover Story

Ebony, May, 2002 by Lynn Norment

IT'S 8:30 a.m., another beautiful California morning. Vanessa L. Williams is up and about her Marina Del Rey home, on the computer paying bills. Before she can get much done, her 2-year-old daughter, Sasha, is up and about. Williams prepares breakfast and makes a few telephone calls before dressing Sasha and leaving for the toddler's gymnastics class in Venice Beach. On other days, it is swimming or music classes.

The attentive mother keeps an eye on the adorable, active child as she goes through the workout with instructors. After returning Sasha home, Vanessa heads off to a sound studio, where she completes a voiceover for an October episode of Disney's The Proud Family animated television series.

She then breezes into a restaurant in Universal City to have lunch with a longtime acquaintance. Dressed in khaki pants, orange blouse, jean jacket and platform sandals, with a hat pulled over her sandy hair, she melds into the California ambience of the upscale restaurant. After lunch she heads to the Ahmanson Theatre in downtown Los Angeles. Throughout the day she checks in by phone with her three other children, Melanie 14, Jillian, 12, and Devin, 9, who are back home in Chappaqua, N.Y., while she wraps up her two-month stay in Los Angeles. She also checks in with their caregiver, the children's father, entertainment manager Ramon Hervey, who also lives nearby and shares custody of the children; and her parents, who live a few miles away and spend a lot of time with the grandchildren.

On this particular day, Williams' husband of two years, Los Angeles Lakers' star Rick Fox, happens to be in New York for a game, so she talks with him several times throughout the day. She relaxes in her dressing room between telephone calls, voice rehearsal, yoga classes, makeup sessions, and hair styling before the 8 p.m. curtain goes up for tonight's performance of Into The Woods. And then, for three glorious hours, she sings, dances and acts her way through the very successful, very entertaining pre-Broadway run of the acclaimed Stephen Sondheim/ James Lapine production.

At about 11:30 p.m., Williams arrives back home, peeks in on Sasha and winds down. If Fox were home, she would spend several hours with him before turning in. Before long, she'll be up with Sasha again, starting a brand new day, another typical day in the life of this celebrity mom.

Vanessa Lynne Williams Fox is the epitome of a 2002 celebrity working mother who is doing it all, having it all, and enjoying every minute of it.

"There is no such thing as balance," says the multi-talented entertainer when asked how she manages it all, how she balances her busy career with her even busier family life. "Sometimes when I'm not with all my kids, I feel I have to accept that my life will be unbalanced. There are only a few times a year that I get a chance to have everybody together, around the holidays and vacations, and those are great times. Most of the time, I am juggling a career with being home with the kids. Fortunately, I have great kids who understand my life."

And a husband who understands as well. "I am fortunate that our [pre-Broadway run] is in L.A.," she says. "So I get a chance to actually live with my husband anal pretend that we live together all the time.

Most times Williams is on the East Coast, her husband on the West. She spends most of her time at her restored, turn-of-the-century farmhouse in Westchester County, where her kids go to the same school she did as a child. Fox spends most of his time at their Los Angeles home, which is near the Lakers' training facility and the airport.

"I have been out here for two and half months without having to get on a plane," Williams says as she eyes her baked brie with portabello mushrooms and roasted peppers. "There is an amount of stress that always came with our visits. It's tough to have a marriage in which you are always anxious about and thinking, 'Okay, when are you going to leave? Let's maximize every moment together.' It's been nice to just kind of chill, just live with each other and realize what I have been missing--even though he is on the road and he isn't here the whole time either."

When asked what kind of guy her husband is, she uses the terms fun-loving, romantic and thoughtful to describe him. "He's a loyal, hardworking, fun-loving, supportive man who is secure with himself and very proud of his family," she says. She tells of how when she started rehearsals for Into the Woods, she casually mentioned that she needed to get some things to personalize her dressing room. The next day, Fox personally delivered a slipcover for the sofa, a huge, beautiful screen, candles, a rock garden, stereo, television, flowers, and more. "People were saying, `Oh, my God, your dressing room is great,'" Vanessa says, smiling beautifully. "And I just said, `My husband did it.'

"I didn't have to ask him," she continues. "It's just the little things that are very romantic and very thoughtful that make a difference. He is very romantic and thoughtful and caring. As a father he is enthusiastic; he just can't wait to see his children. One of his happiest moments is when he finishes a game and we're in the family room waiting for him. Even if they lose or if he had a bad game, his daughter is running to him calling `Daddy! Daddy!' It makes everything worthwhile."