Tyrese Reacts to Halle Berry Rejecting Van Hunt's Proposal: 'Is the Institution of Marriage Dead?'

Berry said that after being married three times, she doesn't need marriage to "validate" their love.

June 5, 2025
(L-R) Van Hunt, Halle Berry, and Tyrese
Image via Gilbert Flores and Paras Griffin/Getty Images

After Halle Berry declined Van Hunt’s marriage proposal, Tyrese Gibson is wondering if marriage is “dead.”

On Thursday, Tyrese took to Instagram to share a headline about Berry turning down her boyfriend. The singer and actor shared a lengthy caption about marriage, love, and divorce.

“Is the institution of marriage dead?” Tyrese asked.

“Can we ever get to a place where we feel WHOLE in a relationship and feel like you are truly in love and HAVE your PERSON without marrying them when marriage in itself has caused so much trauma and pain?” he continued.

He then clarified his statement, describing Berry as his “sister” with whom he often has conversations about “divorces and child support and family courts and the traumas that have been inflicted on us because of it!”

He added, “It’s really hard and very fragile, and UBER sensitive to have conversations about getting married when we all look forward to the ultimate level of love and yet a chosen few of us have had loved almost kill us….”

Hunt revealed in a new episode of Today with Jenna & Friends that he proposed to Berry, but she declined.

"So I put out the proposal, and it’s still on hold as you can see," Hunt said, prompting a laugh from Berry. "It’s just out there floating. You know, maybe you can encourage her."

The actress explained her reason for turning him down.

“Well, I’ve been married three times," she shared. "Van has been married once, and so no, we don’t feel like we have to get married to validate our love in any way. We don't."

She then said that out of all the people she’s married, Hunt is “the person I should have married.” She also said that their wedding will happen “soon.”

Tyrese has been married twice. His divorce from his second wife, Samantha Lee, was finalized in 2020, but the exes have since struggled with custody issues over their daughter, 6-year-old Soraya. Last fall, the 46-year-old was detained for unpaid child support payments after a judge mandated he pay tens of thousands to Lee.

He was previously married to Norma Mitchell from 2007 to 2009, and the former couple shares 18-year-old Shayla.

In addition to being married three times, Berry has two kids. She welcomed her first child, 17-year-old Nahla Ariela Aubry, with her ex-boyfriend, Gabriel Aubry, and had her second child, 11-year-old Maceo-Robert, with her third husband, Olivier Martinez.

She was also married to former MLB player David Justice from 1993 to 1997 and musician Eric Benét from 2001 to 2005.

Hunt and Berry have been dating since 2020. He has a son named Drake from a prior relationship.