Wow, it seems like no Hollywood relationship is safe from divorce, even after 21 years of marriage.
Actress and singer Tisha Campbell-Martin, 49, has filed for divorce from husband, actor Duane Martin, 52 confirmed by PEOPLE. The couple shares a total of 27 years together, and 21 years of marriage.
“After 27 years of being together and two amazing children, it pains me to announce that I’ve filed for divorce,” Tisha, 49, said in the statement.
The pair had been repeatedly featured on just about everyone’s list of Black Love couples who have stood the test of time. While there have been many rumors of husband Duane Martin’s sexuality and possible infidelity, the couple has never responded and seem to have always pushed forward.
“It’s an emotional time and I graciously ask for privacy for me, our children and the rest of our family,” she shared.
Over the course of their marriage, the pair, who wed in 1996, had two children: sons Ezekiel, 8, and Xen, 16.
Duane Martin and Tisha both starred in Kevin Harts scripted reality series, Real Husbands of Hollywood for the past couple of seasons. Tisha, of course, starred on Martin Lawrence’s hit 90’s show, ‘Martin’ for five seasons before the sitcom went off the air in 1997 due to serious riffs between Martin Lawrence and Campbell-Martin.
But all of this seems a little bit ironic now, since Tisha and Martin are back friends again. In October 2016, they reunited with the rest of their castmates to celebrate the life of their late costar and friend
Tommy Ford, who played Tommy Strawn on show.
And earlier in February 2018, Lawrence, Campbell-Martin and Tichina Arnold were spotted out for a steak lunch in Burbank by TMZ cameras and asked about the possibility of a Martin reboot.
“Never say never,” Lawrence told the media outlet. “We don’t know nothing right now, but never say never.”
“Within life there’s always new beginnings and there’s always change and there’s always new plateaus, so we’ll see what’s happening,” added Arnold, 48.
And Tisha kept her answer plain and simple, “We can’t tell y’all sh—” she said, laughing.
While this may not be the only high profile divorce after at least a decade being together (think Chris Rock, Kenny “Babyface” Edmonds, The Neelys, etc), the overall divorce rate in America is actually going down. Researchers have found that the rate of divorce in the U.S. actually peaked at about 40% around 1980 and has been declining ever since.
And, according to data from the National Survey of Family Growth, the probability of a first marriage lasting at least a decade was 68% for women and 70% for men between 2006 and 2010. The probability that they would make it 20 years was 52% for women and 56% for men.
Either way, it doesn’t seem like Tisha is losing any sleep on it and she’s gearing up for a busy 2018 working on numerous projects.
She has a starring role as Nellie Biles, the mother of Olympic gymnastics phenom Simone Biles, in Lifetime’s The Simone Biles Story: Courage To Soar. This year is also the 30th anniversary of the cult classic, Spike Lee’s School Daze.
“I just wanted to be in a Spike Lee film,” confesses Tisha to BET.com. “And I had no idea that I was auditioning for…
… the lead role ‘cause I had heard that Vanessa Williams was the lead. And you know, I was, I was just auditioning for one of the girls. [But] I think she was doing another project and it didn’t work out.
So, when they picked me for the lead, I was like, ‘huh? Like um really?’ So, it was shocking. And you know I didn’t get a chance to go have a college experience at that time, because I was still, like I said, paying bills. So I got to really be in that experience.
Meeting people, working with great actresses like A.J. Johnson, Jasmine Guy, and Kadeem. And Kadeem, I mean, we’ve all known each other. Like Kadeem and I used to see each other on auditions in New York.
You know what I mean? So, it was amazing that it’s been that long. People still love the songs. People still love the movie. It’s almost like a required thing to see before you step into an HBCU.”
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