Halle Berry has never been shy about desire or heartbreak. Now, at 59, the Oscar winner is revealing a rule she lives by with fiancé Van Hunt, and it is less about the bedroom itself and more about how she wants this next chapter to feel.
TLDR
Halle Berry uses a recent podcast appearance to draw a clear line about honesty in the bedroom, even as she celebrates a long-awaited engagement to musician Van Hunt after three previous marriages.
Owning Pleasure on Her Terms
On a recent episode of the “Sex With Emily” podcast, Berry spoke candidly about the pressure many women have felt to perform during intimacy. According to Page Six, she explained that she once believed she had to pretend she was satisfied just to protect a partner’s ego.
“We had to get there so that he felt good about bringing us to orgasm,” she said. “We had to say that we did it so that he would feel good about himself. Because what is that doing? That is putting his needs before our own. And now I do not do that anymore.”
Berry said that honesty has become nonnegotiable, especially in this stage of life. “I am like, No, I come first like you come first to you,” she continued, stressing that she wants intimacy to be a “mutually enjoyable experience” where both partners can drift off to sleep feeling equally content instead of one person “looking at the ceiling, going, What the hell?”
For an actress long associated with glamour and sensuality, the moment felt different. Berry was not selling fantasy. She was talking about emotional equity, and about how that principle now guides the private side of her very public romance.
A Slow Path to Yes
Berry confirmed this month that she is engaged to Hunt, 55, after nearly six years together. During an appearance on “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon,” she cleared up confusion that she had somehow rejected his proposal. “There is some confusion that he asked me to marry him, and I said no, but that is not the case,” she said. “I did not say no, we just do not have a date, but of course I said yes, I will marry him.”
Hunt, for his part, has framed the engagement as a patient, evolving decision. Back in June 2025, he revealed that he had already proposed. Page Six notes that he joked, “So I put out the proposal, and it is still on hold, as you can see. It is just out there floating.” The image was lighthearted, but it captured a couple in no rush to force a wedding before it felt right.
Love, Experience, and Reputation
Berry has spoken openly about her hesitation to marry again after three divorces. According to Encyclopedia Britannica, she was previously married to MLB player David Justice, singer Eric Benet, and French actor Olivier Martinez, building a romantic history that has often overshadowed her work as an Academy Award winner.
That history has shaped how she talks about commitment now. In past comments about her relationship with Hunt, Berry has said, “We do not feel like we have to get married to validate our love in any way. We do not.” The engagement, in that light, reads less as capitulation to tradition and more as a choice she is finally comfortable making on her own terms.
Publicly aligning that choice with an insistence on mutual pleasure and honesty adds an intriguing new layer to Berry’s image. She is not just the ageless beauty on a red carpet or the action star in “Catwoman.” She is a woman approaching 60 who is willing to redraw the rules in real time, inviting fans to see her as someone still learning, still negotiating, and still insisting that her needs count.
In a culture that often tells women to be grateful for love at any age, Berry’s refusal to fake it, emotionally or physically, may be the boldest part of her late-career reinvention.
Join the Discussion
How does Halle Berry’s mix of vulnerability, boundaries, and hard-earned experience land with you as she prepares for a fourth walk down the aisle?
