There’s no one quite like Halle Berry.
But don’t let her highlight reel fool you.
Not everything has been sunshine and rainbows in this star’s life.
Halle Berry was a victim of domestic violence
“There’s lots of abuse in my childhood.
At the age of five, she had already witnessed her father physically assaulting her mother.
I wasn’t married to a man that beat me up, but my mother was.”
The Oscar winner recalled the experience of seeing her mother get beaten up “day after day.”
And I’ve suffered the damage of being a child of domestic violence."
“That’s what connects me to this organization.
I have an understanding, a knowing.
This meant they bore “the brunt of a lot of jokes.”
But things changed on prom night when she was accused of cheating to win the title of prom queen.
“Three months later, I was out of my cash, " Berry recalled in aninterview with People.
At one point, she lived in a homeless shelter while trying to make ends meet.
In a pinch, she reached out to her mother who told her to “figure it out.”
Berry stopped speaking to her mom for a year afterward, but she understood the decision in retrospect.
Aside from some financial issues, it was difficult to book a job in Hollywood.
I was literally struggling to find work,” Berry toldVanity Fairin 2021.
Despite the hardships, quitting was never the answer for Berry.
It took me back to my high school years.
You say I can’t?
I’m going to figure this out,” said the Oscar winner.
“My car just spun around …
I saw that my wrist was broken.
I couldn’t move,” Raythatha explained toPeople.
Both Berry and Raythatha suffered injuries from the incident.
The former required stitches in the forehead, while the latter broke her wrist along with other injuries.
Also, Raythatha’s car was completely totaled after the incident.
In 2002, she won an Oscar for her role in the 2001 movie “Monster’s Ball.”
This made her the first-ever Black woman to win an Oscar for best actress.
“This moment is so much bigger than me,” Berry said in heracceptance speech.
I thought that moment was bigger than me.
It’s heartbreaking to start to think maybe it wasn’t" Berry toldTeen Vogue’sElaine Welterothin 2017.
Winning an Oscar didn’t give her a major career trajectory as she had hoped.
Berry still needed to put in the work regardless.
It did fundamentally change me, but it didn’t change my place in the business overnight.
I still had to go back to work.
I still had to make a run at fight to make a way out of no way."
“I left so fast there were skid marks.
It never happened to me before or since,” Berry toldPeople.
For years, it was believed to be her first husband, professional baseball player David Justice.
He kept quiet on the matter until 2015, during the media coverage of Berry’s third divorce.
Halle has never said that I hit her."
Berry had a whole team behind her, while Justice didn’t even have a publicist at the time.
First off was her split from husband David Justice in 1997.
Another particularly difficult and highly publicized split followed with the divorce of her second husband, Eric Benet.
They were married from 2001 to 2003, and their divorce was finalized in 2005.
After her third divorce, from third husband Olivier Martinez, she learned the joy of being single.
“I think this is proving to be a really valuable time.
“I wish I had met him sooner so I could have loved him longer.
I just feel fulfilled,” Berry toldWomen’s Healthin 2021.
The divorce damaged her self-esteem.
“My sense of worth was so low.
I had to reprogram myself to see the good in me.
Because someone didn’t love me didn’t mean I was unlovable.
I promised myself I would never be a coward again.”
If you or someone you know is struggling or in crisis, help is available.
Call or text 988 or chat988lifeline.org.
“I’ve often felt guilty and responsible.
I’ve suffered a lot of pain and anguish.”
Berry and her then-boyfriend Gabriel Aubry welcomed their first child,Nahla Ariela Aubry, in March 2008.
The couple never married and officially split in 2010.
“And we are both 100% committed to being the best parents we can be.
She often gets injured on set
Halle Berry is no stranger to on-set injuries.
Regardless, she has done and continues to do a lot of her own stunts.
Smoke grenade debris landed in her eye and required removal.
The injury was temporary, and she was able to resume work shortly after being treated.
It wasn’t the only unfortunate thing to happen on set, though.
She also choked on a fig during an intimate scene with Pierce Brosnan.
Instead of intimacy, she got a Heimlich instead.
“I was supposed to be all sexy and, like, trying to seduce him with a fig.
But even then, she has had her fair share of on-set mishaps that weren’t necessarily stunt related.
It was a freak accident, but we’re good friends.”
One day during taping, she collapsed and slipped into a coma for a week.
She was later diagnosed with diabetes at the age of 22.
“It was a moment I’ll never forget.
I found myself in a coma due to my diabetes,” Berry wrote on her website,Respin.
Berry agreed to be in “John Wick: Chapter 3 Parabellum” before she even read the script.
Taking the role required intensive training.
“My body had to do things that I had never done before.
I learned three different kinds of martial arts.
It was nonstop, six months, eight hours a day,” Berry shared in an interview onToday.
“I broke some ribs during training.
I had broken ribs probably for five weeks and didn’t really realize it.”
