First Ex Divorced Halle Berry Because She Wasn't a Trad Wife

David Justice says his 'Midwest' thinking has evolved since their 1997 split
Posted Aug 11, 2025 10:38 AM CDT
First Ex Divorced Halle Berry Because She Wasn't a Trad Wife
In this Oct. 28, 1995, file photo, Atlanta Braves outfielder David Justice waves to the crowd after the Braves defeated the Cleveland Indians in Game Six of the World Series.   (AP Photo/Tannen Maury, File)

Halle Berry's first marriage to former MLB star David Justice has been over for nearly three decades, but it's apparently still on his mind. Justice spoke at length about the relationship during a recent appearance on the "All the Smoke" podcast, explaining their 1997 divorce came about in part because Berry wasn't a "traditional" wife, per Entertainment Weekly. Summing up his thoughts at the time, he said, "She don't cook, don't clean, don't really seem motherly."

Justice said Berry proposed to the Atlanta Braves player five months after they met in 1993, when both were in their 20s. They married that same year. "I said okay, but I don't know if my heart was really into it," said Justice. "But I didn't want to make her feel bad and say no." Coming from the Midwest, he expected a wife to act like his own mother, meaning she "should cook, clean, [be] traditional, you know?" Berry did not check those boxes, he said. But there were other issues, too. For one thing, the pair spent a lot of time apart, per USA Today.

Justice, 59, said he realized he didn't want to be with Berry for the rest of his life, and ended the relationship abruptly. Looking back now, "I'm like, that girl really did love me. And I can see why she would be so mad at me." He also suspects "we probably could have made it, if I knew about therapy." "It's just that I, because I was young, had only been in honestly one real relationship before her," he continued. "My knowledge and my understanding and my wisdom around relationships just wasn't vast."

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