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

Williams met Fox in August 1998 when, through acquaintances, he invited her to his birthday party while she was in L.A. for the premiere of her movie, Dance With Me. "I had never dated an athlete," she confesses, "and I was just out of a relationship that was pretty painful, and the last thing I was looking for was to get involved in another relationship, especially with a high-profile, handsome athlete whom you would think all the girls are chasing."

After almost getting cold feet, she stopped by his party briefly, and he accepted her invitation to attend the premiere and party for her movie the next evening. "He sent me three dozen roses to thank me for inviting him to be a part of my opening night," Williams says.

Soon after that, Fox tracked her down in New York after he finished filming a movie in Canada. Because the NBA was in a lockout, he decided to stay in New York, and Vanessa decided, finally, to accept his invitation to go out. "He was very much a gentleman, and not a hound," she says of their first close encounters. "I think everyone has a perception of professional athletes, especially single ones who are gorgeous; you assume that they have a whole lot of women always available to them or chasing them, and I didn't want to be a part of any of that. So I wasn't digging him at all. I didn't want to be caught up in any of that, and I had never dated a high-profile athlete. I had just gone from a marriage of 10 years to being single."

She and Fox went out a number of times, and then he took her to his hometown, Nassau, Bahamas. On another getaway, he took her to Jamaica. "We had a nice little dating period," she says. "Being whisked away for weekends on a Caribbean island--those are very romantic arrangements ... that lend themselves to getting to know someone and falling in love."

As she picks at her London broil salad and sips on mint tea, Vanessa ponders the question: When did you know he was the ONE?

"Do you ever know when the person is the one?" she finally says, her expressive blue eyes underscoring her point. "After being in a marriage, you certainly don't want to fail again. I think I was willing to trust again in maybe six months into it. I think that what happened is that I fell in love, I surrendered easily and then pulled back. I said to myself, `Okay, am I repeating the same pattern? Am I making another mistake?' Your heart falls and your brain is saying, `Wait a minute.' You want to be brave and then there's the fear of failing. So then you just have to convince yourself and ponder, how can I make it better, how can I make sure this is different? He's a different person and it's a different situation. I'm a different person."

She says Fox is "mature for his age" and made it known that he "wanted me" from the beginning. "He said that `If I don't many you, I am not going to marry anybody else.' That was very comforting," she says.

"I was more caught up in the age difference in the beginning because he is six years younger than I am," she reveals. "I got over that eventually. The age thing was a factor for me; it wasn't for him ... He's very loyal. He's very connected to his family and his tradition. And coming into a relationship with three kids, that is a lot for anyone. It was not only a new relationship, but I had kids."