Actress Halle Berry files to divorce singer Eric Benet

Jet, May 17, 2004

Having been separated since last October, Halle Berry recently filed for divorce from singer Eric Benet.

Berry's publicist Karen Samfilippo confirmed to JET that the Academy Award-winning actress filed to end the couple's three-year marriage. However, she declined to provide any details about the dissolution.

There had been tremendous media speculation and questions since the beginning of the marriage surrounding the faithfulness of Benet. The two met in 1999 at a party for the premiere of her role in the hit HBO TV movie Introducing Dorothy Dandridge, a part that resulted in her winning an Emmy Award and a Golden Globe Award.

Berry previously was married to David Justice, now an outfielder for the Cleveland Indians. Benet has a young daughter, India, from a previous relationship with a girlfriend who was killed in a car accident 15 months after the child was born.

The two married Jan. 19, 2001, in Santa Barbara, CA, in a secret ceremony that they managed to keep away from the paparazzi.

Berry became the first Black actress to win a Best Actress Academy Award for her role in Monster's Ball in 2001.

Benet's hits include Spend My Life With You and Love Don't Love Me.