Taraji P. Henson Recalls Abusive Boyfriend In New Memoir: He punched me in the face.

Taraji P. Henson opens up about a painful past relationship, in her upcoming memoir, Around The Way Girl. In the book, the Empire star reveals that she broke off her relationship with her boyfriend, who was also her child’s father, years ago, after he hit her. He later died violently.

Taraji P. Henson

Taraji explains that she was only 17, when she first met him (who she refers to as Mark) and described their relationship as turbulent.

They broke up and Mark had two babies with two other women during their split. They reconciled in the early 90’s, while Taraji was a student at Howard University.

She explains that Mark was supportive while she was pregnant, but when their son Marcell was born, things became stressful. One night, a huge argument turned physical. Taraji writes:

The next thing I knew, Mark’s balled-up fist was coming straight for my face. I fell onto the bed crying and holding my mouth; blood seeped off my lips and across my teeth. Droplets splashed across my shoes … slowly creeping into the fibers of my suede boots.

Taraji said she screamed at him:

This is over! Get your s— and get out!

Her father encouraged them to reconcile, but she decided she could not stay in the relationship.

With that separation, my forever man, my first love, was no more.

While she raised their child on her own, Mark wasn’t completely out of the picture. Unfortunately, he was later killed after being violently beaten and stabbed after a confrontation over slashed tires.

Taraji P. Henson

Experiencing domestic violence from a boyfriend wasn’t the only traumatic life experience that Taraji shares in the book. She also recalls that as a little girl, her father (Boris) tried to kidnap her from her mother Bernice. According to report,

The actress was just four years old when the father she adored dragged his wife, Bernice, into his car, threatening to kill her. The only thing that saved the terrified woman from being dragged down the street, with her body hanging out of the car, was the quick-thinking action of her sister who snatched the keys from the ignition. Bernice then took her young daughter and hid out where she thought Boris wouldn’t think to look for them – with his sister at her house in a small Maryland town. But in less than a week he found them, raging and pounding at the door. ‘Taraji! Come see your daddy!’ he bellowed. The little girl was in a back room, scrambling to find her shoes to run to her father. But the door held and her mother found her there and gathered her up in her arms. They’d escaped once again. Happily, her father eventually straightened out and became a major source of support in her life. But by then Henson was a young woman.

Her new memoir, hit shelves October 11th.

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