How Taraji P. Henson Made It in Hollywood as a Single Mother

Henson came from humble beginnings, growing up in an apartment in Washington D.C. that she’s described as being “one step up from the projects,” according to her Howard University bio.

She told USA Today she first caught the “acting bug” as a kindergartener, while singing in her class graduation. 

“I did something funny, the audience laughed, and I said, ‘I like this,’” she remembered. “It happened again in the fifth grade. I was so rambunctious and outgoing, like baby magic, and my fifth grade teacher was smart enough to channel that energy into the arts. She put me in my first class, and I just took to it.” 

When she didn’t get into the Duke Ellington School of the Arts, Henson put her acting dreams aside and headed to North Carolina University, where she pursued a degree in electrical engineering. But after failing precalculus, Henson switched gears and transferred to Howard University, where she once again found her way back to acting.

Her life took an unexpected detour when she got pregnant during her junior year, but she never let it derail her. 

“When I got pregnant in college, people said, ‘This is it for her,’” she told Glamour in 2015. “But I did not stop. I never missed a class. I was in the school musical when I was six months pregnant — we just made the character pregnant. My mother swears Marcell came out doing the dance; he had learned the choreography. When I graduated, I carried my son across the stage.” 

After college, Henson decided to move with her young son, Marcell Johnson, to Los Angeles to pursue her acting dreams.

“People were like ‘Are you crazy, moving to California with your son?’ My father was like, ‘Leave him home.’ I said, ‘I can’t leave my son at home.’ [And eventually] my father said, ‘That’s your baby. That’s your blessing. He’s going to be your strength.’ And you know what? He was,” she said.

Once in Los Angeles, Henson skipped out on the clubs to focus on creating the life she wanted for herself and her son.

“I had a mission,” she told the magazine. “I had to make my dream come true. If I didn’t, what was I proving to my son?”

Although she’s been engaged, it appears that Henson has never been married — and that’s just the way she likes it. 

“I’m single and happy,” she told Dax Shepard earlier this year on his podcast Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard. “I’m not longing [for a relationship] and at this point, I’ve decided I don’t want to be married. For what? I’m not having [more] kids [so] what’s the point?” 

But that doesn’t mean she’s written off romance all together.

“Let’s be life partners,” she continued. “Live and thrive. I want to keep my house, you keep yours.” 

Henson was previously linked to former NFL star Kelvin Hayden, but the pair called off their engagement in 2020, CNN reported at the time. 

“I just turned 50 and I mean, I hadn’t said it yet, but it didn’t work out,” she told the hosts of the podcast The Breakfast Club of the split. “I tried. I was, like ‘Therapy, let’s do the therapy thing,’ but if you’re both not on the same page with that then you feel like you’re taking it on yourself. And that’s not a fair position for anybody to play in a relationship.”

She’s also dated actor Hill Harper, rapper Common, and former basketball star Lamar Odom, according to Bustle. 

There is one man, however, who has been a constant in her life. That’s her son Marcell, who Henson once described to People as her “greatest gift.”

In her book, Around the Way Girl: A Memoir, she credited being a young, single mother with giving her “laser-sharp” focus to accomplish her goals. 

"That is the miracle of single motherhood: it is not easy to raise a human being with a partner, but doing so alone requires a Herculean effort that is all muscle and grit, built up with repetitive sets of sacrifice," she wrote. "Whatever you gain, whatever you earn, you give to your baby and you work triple hard to show your child — not anyone else — that moving forward, no matter how tiny the steps, is possible. This is a single mother's love."

Henson shares her son with her high school sweetheart William LaMarr “Mark” Johnson, who she met at a movie theater when she was 17, according to People. Henson has shared that the relationship ended after Mark became physically abusive.

"It started with the bruises and grabbing, things like that. And then once the fist came, once the balled hand came and the fists — and I'm missing a piece of my lip to this day — that's when I knew I had to go," she said on an episode of Facebook Watch’s Peace of Mind with Taraji, according to ABC News. 

Tragically, Mark was “stabbed to death” when her son was just 9 years old. 

She opened up in an episode of the show about how difficult it was to tell her son about the death. She chose instead to tell him that he’d died “in an accident.” 

“My son’s father was suddenly taken, murdered, when he was 9 and I didn’t know how to tell him that,” she said. “I couldn’t tell him he was murdered.” 

Marcell eventually discovered the truth and the mother and son sought therapy together. 

Marcell has appeared with his famous mom on the red carpet and cheered her on in 2019 when she got her star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. 

“I’m a mom. I have a son. When I set out on this journey, I said, ‘I’ll never give up because if I give up, what am I teaching my son?" she said in her speech, according to People.

Marcell has followed in his mother’s footsteps and done some acting himself, appearing in 16 episodes of Empire, according to his IMDB profile. 

He also released his own rap EP in 2015, The Dikembe EP, which his proud mom touted on her own Instagram, and modeled in a New York Fashion Week show in 2018. 

“PROUD MOMMY MOMENT!!!!” Henson wrote on Instagram of the runway debut along with a few images.